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PRACTICAL POINTERS 



VARIOUS PHASES OF FIELD WORK DISCUSSED IN A 
MANNER DESIGNED TO AFFORD AID AND SUGGES- 
TION TO THE MAN WITH THE RATE BOOK. 



by 
ORBES- LINDSAY 






Author of " Efficiency,' ' "The Psychology 
of a Sale," etc. 



PRICE: LEATHER, $1.50 



THE SPECTATOR COMPANY 

Chicago Office: 135 William Street 

INSURANCE EXCHANGE NEW YORK 



■ Fsz 



COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY 

THE SPECTATOR COMPANY 

NEW YORK 




NOV -3.5916 



>CI.A445495 



FOREWORD 

IN my previous books, "Efficiency" and "The 
Psychology of a Sale," I have presented con- 
densed statements of the fundamental principles 
of Life Insurance Salesmanship, with the design 
of furnishing a sound foundation for field work. 
The present volume is intended to supplement the 
former in rounding out the education of the 
agent. 

"Practical Pointers" treats essential phases of 
the Life Insurance agent's business. It is an aid 
to self-improvement and increased efficiency. 
The directions given are thoroughly practical and 
have been extensively tested in successful agen- 
cies. In my personal observation scores of com- 
mon-place agents have developed into first-class 
salesmen through the adoption of the principles 
and practices advocated in these pages. I have 
no hesitancy in affirming that, by this means 
alone, the majority of Life Insurance agents may 
increase their productiveness from fifty to one 
hundred per cent in the course of a year. 

Someone has said : "Men of achievement are 
not so often those of the greatest intellect or abil- 
ity, as those who turn their knowledge and talent 
to the best account." Experience proves that in 
our business the agent who enjoys exceptional 
natural gifts is frequently surpassed by one of 
ordinary parts, who makes the most of his limited 
ability. The principal purpose of the following 
papers is to point out practical methods by means 
of which the average Life Insurance fieldman 

iii 



PRACTICAL POINTERS 

may enhance his efficiency and increase his bank 
account. 

It is believed that managers and superintend- 
ents of agents will find this volume of service in 
supplying subject matter for agency "talks." The 
greater part of the material has, in fact, been so 
used with results that encourage me to recom- 
mend it to others charged with the duty of in- 
structing fieldmen. 
Los Angeles, July 1, 1916. F. L. 



IV 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I 

Efficiency — Definition of Efficiency — De- 
mand for Efficiency — Methods of Effi- 
ciency — System as an Essential to Ef- 
ficiency : . 1 

CHAPTER II 
The Efficient Agent — Description of the 
High-Type Life Insurance Agent — 
Qualifications and Conditions Funda- 
mental to Attainment of Efficiency — 
Essential Elements of Success. . . 4 

CHAPTER III 
Life Insurance as a Vocation — Latter-day 
Standards of Qualification — Demands 
and Rewards of the Business — Methods 
of Securing Permanent Success. . 10 

CHAPTER IV 

To the Beginner — A Brief Expression of 

Advice and Encouragement. . . 13 

CHAPTER V 
Purpose — Absolute Necessity of a Definite 
Aim — The Stimulus of Ambition — 
Going Forward Step by Step. . . 16 

CHAPTER VI 
That Blockhead Word — Nothing is Impos- 
sible — The Force of Determination — A 
Practical Resolution Suggested. . 19 



CHAPTER VII page 

Habit — Its Force and Effect on Character — 
Some Desirable Business Habits — The 
Value of Forming Good Habits and 
Suppressing Bad Ones. ... 22 

CHAPTER VIII 
System — Its Place as a Factor of Success — 
The Essential Elements of an Efficient 
System — Practical Suggestions for the 
Agent — System Should be Simple. . 25 

CHAPTER IX 

Prospects — 1. Where to Look for Prospects 
— The Straight Canvass as a Source 
of Supply. 2. Definite Standards for 
Gauging Prospects — Utilizing Policy- 
holders — Various Methods of Finding 
Prospects — 3. The Use of Form Letters 
and How to Make Them Effective — 4. 
Specimen Form Letters Which Have 
Been Successful — 5. Testing Prospects 
and Eliminating Deadwood — Closing at 
the First Interview 29 

CHAPTER X 
Policy Illustrations — The Disadvantages 
of Using Policy Illustrations — How to 
Avoid Their Use — The Forcefulness of 
Personal Presentation 48 

CHAPTER XI 

Competition — The Faults of the Novice — 

How to Treat Competition — Mistakes 

to be Avoided — Tactful Side-Stepping 

— Hints as to Conduct in Competition — 

Difficulties and Dangers in Using Ratios. 52 

CHAPTER XII 

Delivering the Policy — Duties Involved in 
It and Opportunities Afforded by It — 
vi 



When to Make a Detailed Explanation page 
of the Contract — How to Secure Extra 
Issues — Forestalling the Twister. . 58 

CHAPTER XIII 

Settlements — Getting Paid for the Business 
— Three Favorable Occasions for Se- 
curing a Satisfactory Settlement — Ar- 
gument for Cash with Application — 
How to Make the Business Renew. . 62 

CHAPTER XIV 

The Blues — Typical Temperament of the 
Salesman — Worry and Anxiety to be 
Avoided — Remedies for the Blues — Re- 
wards of Salesmanship. GQ 

CHAPTER XV 

The Viewpoint — The Dignity and Nobility of 
Our Business — Life Insurance as a Vo- 
cation for the Young Man — Why More 
do not Succeed — The Proper Mental 
Attitude 70 

CHAPTER XVI 

Waste. Waste of Time — Causes of Waste 
Time and How to Remedy Them — 
Waste of Words — How to Economize 
Speech and Make it 'Effective — Putting 
Thought Behind Words — Excessive 
Verbiage Creates Confusion — Waste of 
Energy — Importance of Conserving 
Energy — Ways in Which Energy is 
Wasted 73 

CHAPTER XVII 

Sentiment in Business — Its Presence Often 
Unsuspected — Can be Made a Factor 
in Securing Our Object — Tact Neces- 
sary in Appealing to Sentiment. . . 83 
vii 



CHAPTER XVIII page 

Pointed Policy Presentation — How to Con- 
vey a Clear-cut Definite Idea — The 
Principle of the Concentrated Appeal — 
The Method That Makes the Strongest 
Impression 86 

CHAPTER XIX 
Luck — Its Nature and Common Delusions 
Regarding It — Good Fortune is Invari- 
ably the Result of Preparation — Good 
Work the Surest Way to Command 
Good Luck 90 

CHAPTER XX 
After Hours — The Value of Leisure Time — 
Why the Salesman Needs to be Care- 
ful of His Spare Time — Some Sugges- 
tions for Turning After Hours to 
Good Account 94 

CHAPTER XXI 
Telling Talk — 1. Quality of Work More 
Important Than Quantity — Simple 
Rules for the Use of Speech — The Es- 
sential of Telling Talk — Mental Pre- 
paredness the Basis of Effectiveness — 
2. Ideas, not Words, the Important 
Thing — Methods of Making the Policy 
Presentation Interesting — 3. The Sales- 
man's Talk Must Have a Definite Pur- 
pose Behind It. Finding Out What Will 
Interest the Prospect — Conditions Nec- 
essary to a Successful Canvass — 4. 
Pointed Talk in the Approach — How to 
Overcome Excuses — Creating Interest 
by Curiosity and Suggestion — 5. Talk 
Derives Force From Feeling — Simplic- 
ity in Stating the Proposition — Proper 
Regard for the Prospect's Interests — 
The Mental Attitude Will Determine 
the Effect of Talk. ....... 100 

viii 



PRACTICAL POINTERS 



Practical Pointers 



CHAPTER I 
EFFICIENCY 

THE object of these papers is to promote 
what should be the chief desire of every 
Life Insurance agent, — the desire to increase his 
efficiency. It will be well, therefore to begin with 
a brief general discussion of Efficiency. 

Efficiency is the ability to do things effectually, 
it is the essence of success. Efficiency is fitness, 
■ — adequacy. It is the justification of endeavor. 
If you can not do a thing efficiently, there is no 
excuse for doing it at all. 

In this day the highest Efficiency is demanded 
in mechanical and human service. Poor work 
will not be tolerated in man or machine. Our 
particular business affords evidence of this. The 
companies and the public require a considerable 
degree of knowledge and ability in the Life In- 
surance agent, and the more capable he is, the 
greater recognition he receives in patronage and 
promotion. The time is fast approaching when 
there will be no place in our business for the in- 
efficient man. 

There is one road to success in any vocation. 
It is Efficiency. It is open to every man who 
realizes the need for self-improvement and is 
willing to make the necessary effort. The only 

1 



2 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

obstructions to advance on this highway are 
cranial elephantiasis and hypertrophy of the ego. 
The man who is self -sufficient and omniscient 
must be allowed to "gang his ain gait to the 
deil." 

There is no man of ordinary physical and 
mental calibre but can become a first-class Life 
Insurance agent if he will. It may take years of 
hard work and diligent application. More than 
anything else it will require incessant effort in 
the direction of increased Efficiency. But a rich 
result will surely follow honest endeavor. 

The ranks of Life Insurance solicitors are filled 
with mediocre men. The "hundred thousand 
dollar" class seems to be the limit of attainment 
with the majority. This is because they cease to 
aim at self-improvement after acquiring the 
ability to earn a modest livelihood. 

Just as soon as a man relaxes the effort to in- 
crease in Efficiency, interest in his business be- 
gins to wane. He gradually falls into a rut and 
becomes a common drudge. His work is twice 
as hard as it need be and not half as profitable 
as it might be. 

Is it worth while to master a business which 
will secure to you complete independence — a 
business in which the demand for high class men 
is infinitely greater than the supply? Are you 
willing to devote five or six years of constant 
endeavor to that object? If so, you may be as- 
sured of ultimate success. 

Now as to methods of Efficiency. The first 
and most important is the formation of correct 
habits of work. In order to do this you must 
adopt certain broad principles and the details of 
your business must be regulated by certain fixed 
rules. 

The mechanical inventor first makes sure that 
his engine is sound in its basic construction. 



EFFICIENCY 3 

Then he improves it with a view to producing 
the utmost Efficiency. He knows that if there is 
any flaw in the fundamental features, the dynamic 
results will disappoint his calculations sooner or 
later. 

So you must be sure of your foundation before 
you proceed to make your methods more effec- 
tive. I shall offer you a basis on which may be 
built a structure of efficient personal habits and 
business practises. Suggestions for the forma- 
tion of these will also be given. Nothing will be 
proposed to you but what is perfectly practicable, 
nor anything but what has stood the test of ex- 
haustive trial. 

The general aids to Efficiency embrace every 
kind of improvement of which you are capable. 
Mental and physical culture, all sorts of accom- 
plishments and every variety of knowledge, are 
such aids. 

The specific aids to Efficiency are theoretical 
and practical knowledge of our business. When 
you turn this information to account in your 
field work its value will be measurable in money. 

System in your business is essential to Effi- 
ciency. The former will be greatly promoted by 
the use of the card index and the "Time Record." 
The adoption of these helps has been known to 
increase production from 50 to 100 per cent in 
numerous instances and I doubt if any man 
selling insurance would fail to derive appreciable 
benefit from their use. 



CHAPTER II 
THE EFFICIENT AGENT 

THE high-type Life Insurance Agent of today- 
has a broad view of his business and a sense 
of its responsibilities. He realizes that the esti- 
mate of his company entertained in the commu- 
nity depends mainly upon the impression created 
by himself as its representative. He is no longer 
a mere salesman, actuated solely by the desire to 
secure commissions. He performs the role of ex- 
pert adviser to prospect and policy-holder, and 
accepts the obligation of Efficiency entailed by 
that position. As an exponent of the principles 
of Life Insurance and a supporter of the Institu- 
tion of Life Insurance he appreciates the bene- 
ficial effects of competition and respects the rights 
of his competitor. His conception of Life In- 
surance leads him to see in it opportunity, not 
for a job, but for a career. 

This elevated attitude of the Agent toward his 
business is reflected in the general attitude 
toward the Agent. He is now welcomed where 
formerly he was tolerated, at best. He is now the 
subject of confidence where formerly he was the 
object of suspicion. The insuring public is be- 
ginning to look upon him as an important factor 
in social and commercial economics, and to treat 
him with the degree of trust and respect accorded 
to the lawyer and the physician. 

The extent to which this regard for the Life 
Insurance Agent is enjoyed in any particular 

4> 



THE EFFICIENT AGENT 5 

case must depend upon the character and effi- 
ciency of the individual. You may qualify your- 
self to exert a wide and strong influence in your 
community. You may become the counselor and 
authority in Life Insurance matters to a numer- 
ous clientele. At the same time you may pro- 
mote the general interests of your profession by 
aiding in the important work of educating the 
people. 

The attainment of Efficiency by you depends 
upon certain fundamental qualifications and con- 
ditions which we will now proceed to discuss. 

It is essential that you should be possessed by 
a serious purpose and an adequate sense of the 
dignity of your business. In the present age 
salesmanship is recognized as a profession, and 
Life Insurance as the highest and most lucrative 
branch of it. It affords scope for all the talents 
that a man may bring to bear upon it. Its re- 
wards are practically unlimited. Its achieve- 
ments entail a satisfaction which can not be de- 
rived from selling goods or cultivating land. 
There is no calling in which a man's work is more 
productive of benefit to his fellows than it is in 
Life Insurance, honestly and industriously pur- 
sued. 

The spirit in which you prosecute your busi- 
ness must be one of whole-hearted devotion to 
your work and determination to make yourself 
as efficient as possible in it. This is a matter of 
creating the right mood or attitude and main- 
taining it habitually. The papers which follow 
will assist you in doing so. 

Efficiency is the quality of fitness and the 
ability to do things rightly and adequately. 

Though we have long striven for mechanical 
Efficiency in the machinery and appliances em- 
ployed in the industries, it is only within com- 



6 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

paratively recent years that attention has been 
paid to the Efficiency of the human factor. 

The first discovery in this connection was that 
the average man does not exceed 60 per cent of 
his potential Efficiency in his work. It was then 
ascertained that, with scientific training, the 
Efficiency of an average individual may be in- 
creased to a degree approximating 100 per cent 
of the possible. And finally came the realization 
that the efficient man has more practical ability 
than an inefficient man of greater natural talent. 
That is to say, a man of mediocre qualities who 
knows how to turn them to full account is a 
more effective workman than another of much 
greater qualities who does not know how to apply 
them. 

The latter-day demand of the public for in- 
creased and better service has stimulated Effi- 
ciency in every direction, but especially in that 
of salesmanship. The old crude methods of sell- 
ing passed away with the drummer whose worth 
was measured by his ability to "mix" and his 
capacity for liquor. Today, salesmanship is re- 
duced to a science and an art. To make his mark 
in it one must be a man of exceptional parts. 
The salesman is the most valued man in the com- 
mercial community. The demand for his class 
is greatly in excess of the supply. 

ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS 

So many elements go to make up the Efficient 
Salesman that, although we shall touch on most 
of them in the course of these papers, we may at 
present consider only those which are essentials, 
— those without which he cannot hope for any 
considerable degree of success. 

Success in salesmanship is impossible without a 
foundation consisting of thorough knowledge of 



THE EFFICIENT AGENT 7 

the goods, belief in their excellence and confi- 
dence in the concern putting them out. 

This foundation should be built on lines broad 
enough to embrace all the interests affected by 
the operations of a sale. The salesman who has 
no thought beyond his commissions is not supe- 
rior to a peddler. He will have developed into 
an Efficient Salesman only when his considera- 
tion extends to the interests of his employer and 
of the purchaser. 

If you would become an efficient agent of your 
company you must saturate yourself with the 
conviction that there is no better company nor 
any better contracts than its. You must know 
its special points of excellence and be familiar 
with its policies. You must have that pride in 
your Company that will prompt you to guard its 
prestige jealously, and that sense of affiliation 
with it that will lead you to promote its interests 
energetically. You must entertain a feeling of 
loyalty toward your manager and a genuine re- 
gard for the welfare of the agency of which you 
are a member. You must have a full apprecia- 
tion of your obligations to prospect and policy- 
holder, and rigidly perform them. 

Acquire this attitude — work in this spirit — and 
you need have no concern for your own inter- 
ests. They will flourish as surely as grass will 
grow on watered ground. 

Be square — not merely honest, but strictly fair 
and just. You can create no more valuable as- 
set in your business than a well-founded reputa- 
tion for integrity and square-dealing. 

Life Insurance has been truthfully described 
as "the best paid kind of hard work in the world." 
Success will require the exercise of energy, but 
you may be sure of ample reward for every hour 
of earnest and intelligent effort. 

Cultivate earnestness. It will afford you mo- 



8 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

tive power and give you balance. Let earnest- 
ness characterize your work. Maintain an earnest 
interest in Life Insurance and everything per- 
taining to it. Join your local Life Underwriters' 
Association and take an earnest part in its pro- 
ceedings. Make an earnest resolve to embrace 
every opportunity of increasing your efficiency as 
a Life Insurance Agent. 

Confidence is essential to the end you have in 
view. You must believe in yourself and count 
on success as an ultimate certainty. If you have 
confidence you will not lack perseverance. With- 
out it your progress will be uncertain and by 
stumbling steps. You must be confident of your- 
self before you can influence others, and nothing 
will beget in you this feeling more surely than 
honesty of purpose, consciousness of ability and 
conviction of the worth of the thing you have 
to sell. 

ABOVE ALL THINGS,— BE THOROUGH! 

Be thorough. Whatever is worth doing at all, 
is worth doing well — is, in fact, worth doing as 
well as you can possibly do it. Genius has been 
described as "the faculty of taking infinite pains." 
The man who is faithful in the performance of 
details may safely be entrusted with the greater 
tasks. Precision in minutiae is the very essence 
of Efficiency. The mathematician's minor calcu- 
lations must be correct; the logician's premises 
must be sound; the mechanic's adjustments must 
be perfect; the artist's hair lines must be true; 
otherwise the final result will not represent 
Efficiency. And so, the salesman who is pains- 
taking and conscientious in the least of his pro- 
cesses is he whose efforts are most effective in 
promoting his own interests and whose services 
are most satisfactory to his employer and to his 
patrons. 



THE EFFICIENT AGENT 9 

Efficiency is the faculty of doing things rightly 
and effectively. It follows, then, that in order 
to exercise this faculty we must be, ourselves, fit 
and equal to the demands of our task. 

The mechanic who would neglect to keep his 
drill or his lathe in good order could not produce 
high grade work. The machine which the sales- 
man employs is composed of his body and his 
brain. He must develop these to their utmost 
capacity and maintain them in a constant condi- 
tion of fitness, if he would be Efficient. 

This desideratum depends upon fixed habits of 
living, founded on correct principles. These 
habits must embrace such matters as exercise, 
food, sleep, and mental occupation. No man may 
hope to be efficient unless he has a healthy mind 
in a sound body. These form the bases of attrac- 
tive and forceful personality. 

This is an age of keen competition and expert 
service. The salesman who would make a marked 
success must be master of his business. In order 
to break through the ruck and gain a position in 
the van, a man needs to be a specialist. These 
requirements demand that a salesman stick to one 
particular line of business — better still, to the 
service of one concern. He must devote himself 
whole-heartedly to learning all that he can about 
his line, and he may never cease in this process 
of self-education if he wishes to keep pace with 
the procession. The ranks are filled by mediocre 
salesmen because the majority abate their efforts 
at improvement as soon as they have attained a 
moderate degree of Efficiency. Most of these 
men are not barred from higher stages of skill 
by lack of ability, but by lack of persistency. 

Make Efficiency your lode-star ! Aim at it con- 
stantly ! Strive for it tirelessly ! Every step you 
take toward it will bring you nearer to success 
as a salesman. 



CHAPTER III 
LIFE INSURANCE AS A VOCATION 

THE man who treats the Life Insurance business 
as a makeshift and a field of temporary em- 
ployment should not expect to get a great deal out 
of it. Nor will it yield much to the "part-time" 
agent, unless he is moved by the serious purpose of 
making it his sole occupation as soon as practicable. 
This is addressed to men who are considering the 
adoption of our business as a vocation and to those 
who not long since entered upon it as a career. 

Now-a-days the companies and the public demand 
Efficiency in the Life Insurance Agent. In order to 
achieve any considerable degree of success he must 
take his business as seriously as he would the pur- 
suit of one of the learned professions. Whatever 
natural talents he may bring to bear upon it will give 
him an advantage, but his ultimate success must de- 
pend upon technical knowledge and training, — upon 
the attainment of business Efficiency. Somewhat 
tardily perhaps, the companies are beginning to rec- 
ognize this truth. A number of the most enterpris- 
ing now give their agents courses of instruction, a 
measure which will be universally adopted at no 
distant day. 

While Life Insurance salesmanship presents a 
splendid field of endeavor to the man of exceptional 
parts, it offers to the man of ordinary ability and 
education a better opening than he can find in any 
other business. There is no calling in which the re- 
turns for labor are so sure or so great in proportion 
to the effort. 

10 



LIFE INSURANCE AS A VOCATION 11 

Is there any other business or profession, of equal 
dignity, which you may enter without expense for 
training or stock in trade? Here you are furnished 
with office facilities and all the material necessary to 
your work, absolutely free. You have the standing 
and influence that arise from the representation of 
one of the leading corporations of your country. 
You may do a business netting you $5,000 in a year 
— or $10,000, for that matter — without any cash 
outlay on your part. The sole investment that you 
are called upon to make is time and energy. 

Furthermore, Life Insurance affords you an ex- 
traordinary opportunity to build up a permanent 
business. In contrast to almost all other branches 
of trade and finance, a sale binds a customer to you 
for life, or for a long term of years. Under a re- 
newal contract the effect of your work is cumulative. 
Each year's commissions, whilst producing a present 
profit, contribute to a constant increment. With 
moderate success for eight or ten years you will be 
assured of an income sufficient to sustain you com- 
fortably, irrespective of the returns of your future 
work. 

It is of the utmost importance that you plan the 
constant upbuilding of your business on a perma- 
nent basis. A little extra pains in your present work 
will produce great future results. Aim to make 
each of your policyholders a satisfied client and a 
personal friend. Embrace every opportunity to ex- 
tend your acquaintanceship among the better class 
of citizens. Exert some influence in your commun- 
ity by taking part in civic movements, but beware 
of allowing yourself to be placed in a strongly par- 
tisan position. You will derive moral gratification 
and material profit from the expenditure of a rea- 
sonable amount of money and time on altruistic ob- 
jects. Above all, strive to establish a deserved repu- 



12 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

tation for probity, reliability, good-nature and busi- 
ness ability. 

A large proportion of men who engage in business 
fail. Few reach prosperity and maintain it to the 
end of life. Many, who make fortunes in their best 
days, lose all in their waning years. You need have 
no apprehensions of bankruptcy or loss. The mar- 
ket for your goods is stable, with a constantly grow- 
ing demand. Has the surgeon or lawyer any such 
prospect? On the contrary, he usually strives for 
five or six years before his living expenses are cov- 
ered by his fees. And when his hand begins to lose 
its cunning or his brain its vigor, his income begins 
to diminish. 

Life Insurance is not without its difficulties. If it 
were, the ranks of solicitors would be crowded with 
incompetents, and the remuneration would be no 
more than commensurate with the ease of the work. 

In the first place, Life Insurance is a technical 
business. You must master its principles and prac- 
tice. You should be willing to devote as much effort 
to developing Efficiency as you would if engaged in 
a profession. The attorney or the physician cannot 
progress far or fast on the increase of skill acquired 
exclusively from experience. It is no less necessary 
for the Life Insurance agent to study and gather 
knowledge from every available source. 



CHAPTER IV 
TO THE BEGINNER 

EVEN though we term Life Insurance a busi- 
ness, that branch of it which pertains to the 
direct educating of the public and the soliciting of 
applications may properly be called a profession, and 
is quite generally beginning to be recognized as such. 
Estimated by its beneficent effects and by the ethical 
standards maintained in it, Life Insurance Sales- 
manship ranks with the highest professions, — those 
of the Ministry, the Law, and Medicine. 

This is the vocation which you have chosen. It 
is no easy walk in life. If it were, its ranks would 
be crowded with loafers and incompetents. Life In- 
surance Salesmanship has been described as "the 
best paid hard work in the world." Success in it 
demands extraordinary effort and the possession or 
acquisition of extraordinary qualities. But in no 
field of endeavor are the rewards so great or so cer- 
tain as in this. From bottom to top the rungs of the 
ladder are broad enough to afford footing to every 
man who will exercise sufficient strength and agility 
to climb them. There is no competition or struggle 
for place. Forty-nine in every fifty men admitted to 
the Bar or the practice of Medicine are doomed to 
comparative failure by reason of the limitation of 
their field of activity. Yours is boundless. Every 
agent carrying a Rate Book might write $200,000 

13 



14 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

yearly and leave scope for the operation of many 
more. The opportunity for the Life Insurance solic- 
itor is practically limitless. 

If we were asked what single business experience 
or qualification is the most valuable to its possessor, 
we would unhesitatingly reply — Salesmanship. 

You are learning this science in its highest form 
and in the best school. The knowledge and exper- 
ience which you acquire in the practice of selling 
Life Insurance will prove a valuable asset to you 
through after life whether you continue in your 
present line of work or not. Without special educa- 
tion you could not have chosen any calling which 
would have offered you equal opportunities, facili- 
ties and rewards. Earnest, persistent effort, di- 
rected toward Efficiency will bring rich results. 

In the entire range of business activity is there 
any field that presents so vast and varied opportun- 
ity to the individual as does the business of Life In- 
surance? Darwin P. Kingsley, George W. Perkins 
and Danford M. Baker are living examples of its 
possibilities. To paraphrase Napoleon's oft-quoted 
saying anent the marshal's baton: "Every fieldman 
carries a president's position in his hip pocket." The 
Rate Book has been the stepping stone to wealth 
and place for thousands. 

Do you appreciate the opportunities of your pres- 
ent field of labor? Are you completely utilizing 
them ? Are you making the most of your personal 
powers? Are you turning your time to the fullest 
account ? 

The responsibility rests with yourself. The issue 
depends upon your capacity and industry rather than 
upon our position and environment. The latter, no 
matter how favorable, are worthless unless the 



TO THE BEGINNER 15 

former are applied to them. On the other hand, the 
largest success may be attained by energy and per- 
severance, despite the heaviest handicaps. 

In the business of Life Insurance there is no 
royal road to success — no short cut — no easy path. 
As in any line of worthy endeavor, a man must 
work hard, must plan intelligently, must persist 
courageously. 



CHAPTER V 
PURPOSE 

IMAGINE a ship without a compass. It may 
have high power engines and every other facil- 
ity for navigation and yet ply hither and thither 
about the seas forever, like Vanderdeken's phantom 
craft, without making port. Now and again it may 
derive some direction from the fixed stars, the rising 
sun, or a distant landfall, but what it gains in head- 
way at such times will be lost in leeway at others 
for lack of permanent guidance. 

A man without a purpose is in the plight of a ves- 
sel without a compass. He may have the capacity 
for great achievement and accomplish nothing. His 
fluctuating course will be marked by alternating 
stages of forward progress and drifting backward. 
He will have spurts of energy and fits of enthusi- 
asm, only to be neutralized by spells of vacillation 
and stagnation. 

The most energetic efforts must prove futile un- 
less inspired by definite aim. Just as the men who 
spend the most money frequently do the least good 
with it, so the busiest man is often the weakest in 
execution. Napoleon, whose capacity for effective 
action was almost superhuman, attributed this great 
power to the habit of always having his mind made 
up — of constantly keeping a precise purpose before 
his view. I believe that it was Landseer — the won- 
derful animal painter — who said that the production 
of a picture would occupy little time if the artist 

16 



PURPOSE 17 

knew exactly what he wanted to do when he took the 
palette and brush in hand. 

A Bishop of Exeter— I forgot which one — said 
something to this effect : "Of all work that produces 
results worth while, nine-tenths must be drudgery. 
The secret of the true workman's success consists in 
dauntlessness in the face of commonplace labor, and 
persistence in the pursuit of purpose." Baudelaire 
declared that "inspiration is the sister of daily 
labor." He might have added, with truth, that pur- 
pose is the parent of inspiration. And inspiration 
is the instinct of success. 

The purposeful mind has a clearly conceived 
track for advance from which it will allow no devia- 
tion. Purpose is the rallying point around which it 
assembles all its faculties, then marches toward its 
goal with direct motion under the impulse of de- 
termination and with the force of massed resources. 

The man without an aim in life is a sorry crea- 
ture, of little more account in the economy of things 
than the mollusk, the plaything of chance, the tool of 
stronger personalities, a mere pawn upon the chess- 
board of the work-a-day world. 

To revert to our metaphor of a ship. Its hull is 
fashioned from the stout planks of Courage and 
Confidence. Ambition is the fuel that generates 
the steam of Inspiration and this supplies the 
Energy to the machinery which drives it, guided 
by the compass of Purpose, to the port of Success. 
And the Captain of our craft is the Will. 

AMBITION 

You may be working hard, but are you doing the 
best of which you are capable ? 

You are moved by a desire to increase your pro- 
duction, but have you any higher motive ? Do you 
entertain any definite Ambition for the future ? 



18 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

Do you wish to become a General Agent of your 
Company? If so, make it a definite aim, and strive 
for its attainment. There is none but may succeed 
if he will. 

Or, perhaps you have decided to remain in the 
ranks of field men, and that is a very sensible de- 
cision, because you can find no more profitable and 
independent position. But if you intend to remain a 
salesman, form some definite idea as to the kind and 
degree of successful salesman you propose to be. 

Are you going to be a five thousand dollar a year 
or a ten thousand dollar a year salesman? What 
sort of house are you going to live in ? What kind 
of machine will you drive? What will you do for 
your family ? What social position will you occupy ? 

Form definite ideas about these matters. Crystal- 
lize them into a definite plan, and seriously aim to 
carry it out. Keep your goal constantly in mind. 
Move toward it step by step. 

Are you earning a surplus? No? Then strive to 
increase your business to a point where it will 
yield more than you need for living expenses. Save 
the excess and aim at a further increase until it 
enables you to buy a home. Go forward again from 
that point, always remembering our ultimate object. 

Maintain a cheerful discontent. Strive for greater 
and better results. Don't admit of any limit to your 
attainment or capacity. 

What if you do not realize your ambition? What 
if you fall short of your ideal ? Should you do your 
best with the ability at your command and the oppor- 
tunities available to you, the claim and the reward 
of success will be yours, for, mark you ! 

Out of every honest purpose, earnestly pursued, 
a man must emerge stronger and better for his 
effort, even though the result may fall far short 
of the accomplishment of his undertaking. 



CHAPTER VI 
THAT BLOCKHEAD WORD 

SO MIRABEAU characterized "impossible." 
Cowley said : "Impossibilities ! Oh, no, there's 
none." There may be logical impossibilities, but 
many a man has converted a logical impossibility 
into an actual possibility. We confound difficulty 
with impossibility. We measure our capacity by our 
experience of achievement. There's the rub! Be- 
cause we have never done a certain thing we con- 
clude that we cannot do it. This is auto-paralysis. 

There is something more than a joke in the Irish- 
man's reply to the inquiry whether he could play the 
piano — "I don't know. I never tried." We don't 
try. We underrate our powers. There isn't one of 
us living up to fifty per cent of his potential effi- 
ciency. We are fearful of failure. The man who 
never failed never attempted anything worth while. 
It is not the man who fails but the man who falters 
that falls. To him who comes back with set teeth, 
again and again, if need be, all things are possible. 

Wellington was not comparable to Napoleon as a 
military genius. And yet, Napoleon was doomed to 
defeat from the moment Wellington took the field 
against him. This, simply because the Briton en- 
tered into the contest with a determination to beat 
his adversary. There were no "ifs" and "ands" in 
his calculation, but just one set idea. Had Water- 
loo been won by Napoleon it would have been mere- 
ly to postpone his downfall. He was opposed by an 

19 



20 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

indomitable Will, against which his battalions could 
not prevail. 

Without an adequate effort nothing is possible — 
not even the simple act of raising the hand. Difficult 
objects can only be attained by hard striving. We 
may not know what we can do until we try. In J 
deed, few of us suspect the extent of our latent 
ableness. 

Can you conscientiously declare to yourself that 
you are making an honest effort in your work ? Have 
you any definite goal or ambition which you are pur- 
suing with persistent determination? Or is your 
daily labor no more than an endeavor to gain a few 
dollars? If so, you are stirred by no very high mo- 
tive. 

Surely, you and your calling are worthy of a 
nobler incentive than this. It were a sad pity to 
allow your inherent faculties to become atrophied 
through disuse, and your powers to waste untested. 
Is there any man in your profession whose position 
appears enviable to you? (Don't hesitate to cast 
your thought upon the highest.) His place and his 
achievement are within the scope of possibility. Nay, 
more — they are positively attainable by you. And 
this, though you be at present the poorest producer 
and the rawest beginner in the Agency. Nor would 
the transition seem so extraordinary, but that we are 
contemplating it in one encompassing view, instead 
of as a graduation of steps. 

I will suggest a comparatively light task on which 
to test your powers — a task easily bounded by pos- 
sibility. 

If you are a beginner, start from today with the 
determined purpose of writing $100,000 or more 
within the next twelve months. In case you are an 
experienced agent, set your mark at not less than 
fifty per cent increase over your last year's business. 



THAT BLOCKHEAD WORD 21 

Make this a resolution. Keep it before you con- 
stantly — daily — hourly — and support it with good, 
honest work. Bear in mind that desire is the in- 
competent man's substitute for Will. A determin- 
ation made and carried out creates increased 
strength for greater effort. Step by step, Develop- 
ment and Evolution keep pace. A few years hence 
you may discern in the Resolve of today the first 
stride in a career of great Success. 



CHAPTER VII 
HABIT 

A TEACHER of languages was endeavoring 
to illustrate to a foreign pupil the applica- 
tion of the word miraculous. "If a man should 
fall out of a fourth story window to the ground 
without hurting himself, what would you call it?" 
he asked. "Accident," replied the foreigner. 
"That is not what I mean," rejoined the teacher. 
"Suppose that he did it a second time. What 
would it be?" "Coincidence," answered the 
pupil. "That's not it, either. Now, let us say 
that the man did it a third time. What would 
you say it was?" The pupil pondered awhile and 
finally answered : "Habit." 

We may form any sort of habit even that of fall- 
ing from a fourth-story window, providing we per- 
form the act a sufficient number of times, with regu- 
larity. The method is simple, but sometimes diffi- 
cult. It consists of resolving upon a certain mental 
or physical action and adhering to it persistently 
until it becomes habitual. In the early stages of this 
process no exception whatever should be allowed. 
After a habit has become confirmed, wisdom and 
expediency may justify occasional deviations from 
it. 

Habit of thought and action is at once the seed 
and the outgrowth of character. A man may not 
be fairly judged by isolated actions, but by his cus- 
tomary conduct. Every habit which we acquire is 
like a branch) grafted to a tree. It is a permanent 
22 



HABIT 23 

addition and will affect the entire tree. This thought 
should influence us toward fostering or checking a 
habit at its very inception. 

Habit is the essence of economy. The man whose 
life is regulated by good habits moves along the 
lines of least resistance. Habit makes action easy 
and, as a consequence, saves time, energy and 
thought. But for the facility derived from ac- 
quired habit we could not accomplish one-tenth of 
what we do each day. If the hundred-and-one acts 
which we perform between the time of rising and 
reaching the office were not mostly mechanical we 
would hardly get down town before noon. 

I have said enough to indicate that habit may be 
made a powerful agency in the promotion of your 
business. We shall not dwell upon the self-evident 
value of good personal habits in this respect, but 
will confine ourselves to a few remarks upon strictly 
business habits. 

Habitual regularity of hours is of the utmost im- 
portance to us. Most especially should we make a 
point of starting work at a fixed time every day. 
Upon the accomplishment of this will depend the 
establishment of other desirable habits, such as regu- 
lar rising, and laying out at the close of each day 
the work for the next. 

In the canvass, sale and delivery of a policy there 
are certain essential things to be done. Decide upon 
the best way for doing each of these things, and 
make a habit of doing it that way every time. The 
pains you may expend on the acquirement of these 
habits will yield rich compensation in increase of 
ease and effectiveness. 

By way of illustration, let us take the matter of 
securing settlements with applications. This is 
largely a matter of habit. If you determine to make 
a settlement the rule, instead of the exception, in a 
few months you will experience no difficulty about 



24 PRACTTCALPOINTERS 

the matter. When it has become a habit, it will save 
you an immeasurable amount of money, time and 
trouble. Make a habit of calling upon each of your 
policyholders at stated intervals. Here is your best 
source of new business, if you exploit it intelligently. 

Let me remind you that it is greatly easier to ac- 
quire a habit than to eradicate one. You must be 
no less careful to guard against bad business habits 
than active in forming good ones. The beginner, in 
particular, should be watchful in this respect. By 
falling into faulty methods at the outset he may 
cause himself endless future trouble. He had bet- 
ter make slow progress, picking his way with cir- 
cumspection, than have to retrace his steps later. 
Many a promising man has owed his failure to the 
early acquisition of a few bad habits. On the other 
hand, there is no surer foundation for success than 
sound personal and business habits. 

Make a habit of forming good habits. 



CHAPTER VIII 
SYSTEM 

IN" its application to business the word SYSTEM 
conveys the ideas of order, method, rule and 
arrangement. A system may be described as a 
comprehensive plan of action and the operation 
of that plan. 

System is the balance wheel of thought and ac- 
tion. System is to Success what the works are to 
a watch. Each part is useful — perhaps essential — 
but the effect is produced by the co-ordination and 
co-operation of individual pieces. So with one of 
us, he may be possessed of intelligence, energy, ex- 
perience, foresight and other valuable qualities, and 
yet be a failure as a practical salesman. To secure 
Efficiency from the various factors at his command 
he must bring them into harmonious and economical 
working order. 

The basic requirements of achievement are: 1. 
A definite conception of the purpose. 2. A definite 
plan of action. 

In order to do anything worth while you must 
have a clear-cut idea of your object. Set that up 
as a goal post. Use a liberal piece of hardwood for 
it. Paint it in glowing colors so that it may always 
stand bright and attractive to your vision. When- 
ever it becomes tarnished by the storm of adversity 
and battered by the impact of difficulties, repair it 
and repaint it. Keep it ever fresh. 

It is not sufficient to know what you intend to do. 
You must know precisely how you are going to 

25 



26 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

do it. You must have a well-considered and fea- 
sible scheme for the accomplishment of your pro- 
ject; and success depends upon pursuing it with the 
pertinacity of a blood-hound. 

Your plan of action will necessarily be limited by 
the resources available. The important thing is to 
turn those resources to the best account It is 
here that System plays its part. It enables you to 
avoid waste effort and to employ your energies in 
the most profitable directions. It makes possible a 
constant and intelligent control of your operations. 
It keeps you moving steadily and surely toward your 
goal. 

Now, the man who is addicted to haphazard pro- 
cesses will find it difficult to adopt methodical prac- 
tices; but the result will fully compensate for any 
pains that may be entailed in securing it. Once ac- 
quire the habit of systematic work and your labors 
will be immeasurably lightened, whilst their effects 
will be greatly enhanced. 

To the individual must be left the formulation of 
the main lines of his System. Opportunity, tempera- 
ment, talents and other conditions will influence the 
matter. There are, however, certain principles and 
practices which may be laid down as essential ele- 
ments of any efficient system of Life Insurance 
salesmanship. 

You must decide upon a specific minimum amount 
of business to be paid for by yourself in the ensuing 
year. This is your immediate goal to be aimed at 
with all the determination you can maintain. Let 
us assume that this mark is $120,000. Then you 
should start each month with the accepted task of 
paying for $10,000, or, better still, each week, with 
the purpose of paying for $2,500. 

Personally, I have found it advantageous to re- 
duce this unit period of effort to the working day. 
When I carried the rate book regularly I made it a 



SYSTEM 27 

rule to do something each day that definitely ad- 
vanced my interests. If, at noon, I could not look 
back at such an accomplishment my efforts were in- 
creased in the remaining hours. Occasionally I 
found it necessary to work during an evening in 
order to avoid a break in my rule. That, for the 
sake of discipline and moral effect more than any- 
thing else. 

The advantage of regular hours is obvious, and 
few of you need admonition in this respect. I am 
not quite so sure that we all appreciate the oppor- 
tunities that are to be found at unusual times of the 
day. In every community there are business men 
who may be most favorably interviewed before nine 
o'clock, after five, or on Saturday afternoon. A few 
enterprising agents reap rich harvests by specializing 
in these comparatively neglected cases. 

Most agents use the calendar card system. Let 
me urge upon any man who is not employing it to 
do so without delay. It is the easiest and most ef- 
fective way of keeping track of your business. It 
enables you literally to place your hand on all your 
prospects in a moment. If properly kept it makes 
the oversight of an engagement impossible. In con- 
nection with this system I strongly recommend the 
habitual practice of reviewing on the preceding 
evening the cards for the following day and pre- 
paring by thought and calculation for the ensuing 
interviews. 

The value of system depends upon its observ- 
ance. There is the widest difference possible be- 
tween a theoretical system and a practical system. 

Adhere to your system firmly. That is not to 
say that there should never be deviation from it. The 
expert whist player is he who knows when to de- 
part from rule. So the rigid disciplinarian should 
know when to relax. 

Your system should be a means, not an end. To 



28 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

be serviceable, it must be an instrument in your 
hands, not shackles on your feet. Some men sys- 
tematize themselves until you can hear them creak 
as they work. 

At the Paris Exposition a clock was exhibited 
which had 3,999 parts. When it was set going, one 
little wheel began to revolve, and that set another in 
motion ; the second started a third, and so on, until, 
at the end of an hour, the movement was imparted 
to the largest wheel of all, which turned once. There- 
upon, after all this bother, the single hand of the 
clock was operated. 

That was a highly systematized timepiece, but it 
represented an enormous amount of unnecessary 
energy. 

The Life Insurance Agent's system should be 
simple — the simpler the better. It may be amply 
adequate, and consist of no more than a card index 
and a set of strict rules for the regulation of work- 
ing hours. 



CHAPTER IX 
PROSPECTS (1) 

THE subject of prospects is one of the greatest 
importance to the solicitor, but it does not 
appear to involve any considerable difficulties. 
When we think that life insurance is almost an 
universal need, it would seem that there can be 
no lack of persons favorable to solicitation for it. 
Indeed, there are masterful men in our business 
who maintain that every male adult is a prospect 
for life insurance and that the least likely may be 
successfully appealed to on some ground or 
through some motive. Accepting this aspect of 
the situation, they act on the principle of Lacroix, 
the French Prefect of Police, who believed every 
man to be a criminal until he was proved to be 
honest. Such agents find their only embarrass- 
ment in the plethora of prospects. They have 
but to make choice of those upon whom they 
prefer to work. 

However, there are not a few agents who ex- 
perience serious difficulty in securing a constant 
supply of prospects. In all probability the root 
of their trouble is to be found in a cause which 
accounts for many of the failures in our business 
— and this is lack of thoughtful observation. 
They don't look for prospects with their eyes 
open. They don't think about the matter with 
their brains at work. 

The agent whose mind is constantly alert to 
everything that may affect his business discerns 

29 



30 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

likely cases for insurance where another may see 
nothing significant. The difference lies in mental 
attitude. One man's mind is habitually adjusted 
to the idea of life insurance, so that it responds 
to the faintest clue, whilst that of the other 
awakens only to the most obvious indications. 

The business blocks of any city bristle with 
suggestions. A new building or new store is 
evidence of new liabilities. Improvements are 
indicative of prosperity. A sheriff's sale of stock 
may be made the means of placing business in- 
surance with a concern in the same line as the 
bankrupt. Crepe on a door will prompt the wide- 
awake agent to call on every man in the block. 

A single copy of any metropolitan Sunday 
paper should furnish enough prospects to keep 
an agent busy for weeks. They are to be found 
in the news columns, the society gossip, the finan- 
cial and real estate sections, the advertising pages, 
and, in fact throughout the publication. The por- 
tion of the paper which is most commonly re- 
sorted to for this purpose is the marriage an- 
nouncements. It is the poorest field imaginable, 
for reasons which will be stated later. 

On the writer's desk at this moment is a cur- 
rent copy of an evening journal, on the front 
page of which is announced in display type the 
tragic death of a business man in an automobile 
accident. A live agent would ascertain before 
bedtime who were this man's intimate friends, 
and would call upon them without delay. 

At short intervals the newspapers contain ac- 
counts of the funerals of prominent citizens in 
which the names of pallbearers and principal 
mourners are mentioned. One could hardly wish 
for a better list of prospects. Almost equally 
promising are the announcements of births and 
engagements. 



PROSPECTS 31 

So rich are these sources that in some agencies 
one man regularly extracts from them enough 
prospects to keep a numerous force of field men 
constantly busy. 

The trouble with the average agent is that he 
cannot see a prospect unless he comes out in 
the open and proclaims himself, whereas the agent 
ought in frequent instances to recognize a man 
as a prospect for life insurance before the man 
himself realizes it. 

Some time ago all the dailies of Los Angeles 
contained simultaneously accounts of a real 
estate purchase involving nearly $3,000,000 by a 
resident of the city. Everyone knows that in 
such transactions a comparatively small cash 
payment is made and a large obligation is as- 
sumed. Life insurance is as clearly indicated as 
blue mass in a bilious attack. 

An agent called on the purchaser the day fol- 
lowing the announcement, and upon the second 
interview secured his application for $100,000. 
The examinations extended over ten days or 
more, and at the end of the time no other repre- 
sentative of a life insurance company had ap- 
peared on the scene. Think of it ! In a city con- 
taining hundreds of agents, only one had recog- 
nized a prospect in such circumstances! 

There are scores of other similar indicators 
available, and they point to prospects of the very 
best kind. But it is not necessary to go so far 
afield. There are always prospects at one's very 
elbow. An agent told the writer a hard-luck 
story. Boiled down, it amounted to this : He 
was playing pinochle with his next-door neighbor 
one night when a doctor called to examine him 
for life insurance. 

As a matter of fact, the agent who has one 
name on his policy register possesses the nucleus 



32 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

of an unlimited supply of prospects. The regis- 
ters of some highly successful solicitors show that 
each policy was directly traceable to one pre- 
viously placed. This kind of business represents 
the greatest returns for the energy expended. 

If any one doubts the plentifulness of pros- 
pects, let him make a straight canvass for seven 
hours each day of a week. He will secure enough 
material to supply him with sixty days' closing 
work. This is one of the most effective ways of 
securing prospects." The degree of success at- 
tained will depend upon the temperament and 
qualifications of the agent. The adept at ap- 
proach cannot adopt any better method of seek- 
ing prospects than the straight canvass. 

Let us close this phase of the discussion with 
an admonition. 

Don't depend upon the lazy man's prospect. 
He is everlastingly looking for the rare man who 
wants life insurance. Such an agent is not a 
salesman. He is merely an order clerk. The 
office can send one of the bookkeepers out to 
write a case of that sort. All you should look for 
in a prospect is a man who may in reasonable 
probability be interested in life insurance. You 
are not half-way efficient unless you have confi- 
dence in your ability to do the rest. 

PROSPECTS— (2) 

Before touching on specific methods of secur- 
ing prospects I will summarize the general con- 
ditions which should characterize men whom we 
seek to insure. 

1. Married men and widowers are more favor- 
able prospects, as a rule, than men who have not 
been married, and this regardless of age. 

2. Men of permanent occupation, with good 
salaries or in independent business of a stable 
character, are the most desirable prospects. 



PROSPECTS 33 

Those whose positions are uncertain, whose busi- 
ness is speculative, or whose incomes are derived 
from commissions, will generally be averse to 
assuming fixed and continuous obligations, or, 
which is worse, will lightly incur obligations with 
little likelihood of meeting them. 

3. The health of the prospect is, of course, a 
matter of the utmost consequence. A little 
thoughtful observation and tactful inquiry at the 
outset may save a great deal of time and trouble. 

4. Age is an important consideration. Begin- 
ners are apt to think that young men are the 
best prospects. This is a mistake. The chances 
of success will be greater with men who have 
business and domestic liabilities to protect, men 
who have reached mature age and have been suc- 
cessful. The most promising prospects are to be 
found among men between forty and sixty years 
of age. 

5. The inexperienced agent unwittingly pits 
himself against the most difficult cases by seeking 
men who are uninsured. Much more likely pros- 
pects are to be met among men who have shown 
their appreciation of life insurance by taking sub- 
stantial amounts of it. 

6. Connection is a valuable factor. The se- 
curing of an application depends upon the crea- 
tion of confidence which it may be difficult to 
effect in the case of an entire stranger. Look for 
prospects among your acquaintances, or among 
men who are known to your friends or policy- 
holders. When you have lived in a community 
for a few years it should be possible to establish 
some kind of link or connection between your- 
self and most of the prospects whom you ap- 
proach. 

There is such an abundance of prospects from 
which to make choice that you can well afford to 
exercise intelligent discrimination in your deci- 



84. PRACTICAL POINTERS 

sions. By applying these six tests to every name 
that you take under consideration you can dis- 
card and accept with good judgment. A few- 
weeks' practice in this method of gauging possi- 
bilities will reduce it to a habit, the maintenance 
of which must save you a great deal of valuable 
time and keep you working in much more profit- 
able channels than you could find by haphazard 
pursuit of prospects. 

Of the numerous methods of securing pros- 
pects we can consider but a few of the best. 

There is no more effective medium than your 
policyholders. If, when you deliver a policy, 
you make it clear to your client that the com- 
pany pays commission in consideration of your 
writing the business and looking after it as long 
as it remains in force, he will be prepared for 
your later calls and will credit you with having 
his interest at heart. Under the circumstances 
it will generally require no more than a hint to 
induce him to give you a few introductions to his 
friends. 

Whenever you write an application through 
such means call at once on your policyholder and 
thank him for his aid. Whilst fulfilling the de- 
mands of common courtesy you will also be ad- 
vancing your interests. In the nature of things 
your client will derive self-satisfaction from hav- 
ing promoted your success and will endeavor to 
repeat the experience. Policyholders frequently 
become enthusiastically active in helping agents 
when the latter take tactful advantage of the re- 
lationship. 

The "straight canvass" is an excellent way of 
obtaining prospects for the agent who is ener- 
getic, self-possessed, nimble witted and ready of 
speech. The man who is adapted to "raw solicit- 
ing," as it is sometimes called, will average one 
live prospect, at least, for every hour's work, and 



PROSPECTS 35 

in three days will have accumulated fifteen, or 
twenty. As the attitude and tactics suitable to 
this sort of work are different from those neces- 
sary in closing, the agent who employs the 
straight canvass should devote three or four days 
at a time to prospect getting, alternately with 
ten days or two weeks to closing. 

The straight canvass may be modified in sev- 
eral ways to reduce the waste time and energy 
involved in its crude form. The agent may work 
through an office building or among a certain 
class of professional men with the assurance that 
the majority of the persons he will see can pay 
for insurance and have an intelligent apprecia- 
tion of its value. 

A still further modification of the straight can- 
vass, and one which almost removes the method 
from that classification, is contrived by making 
a list of substantial business and professional men 
from a directory, and by inquiry, applying to 
each name the six tests of desirability which have 
been enumerated. This system is practiced with 
great success by many agents in large cities. As 
a rule they have several good sources of informa- 
tion, such as medical examiners, bankers, club- 
men, members of stock exchanges, boards of 
trade and similar organizations, with wide circles 
of acquaintances. The form letter — of which we 
shall have more to say hereafter — is often used in 
connection with this plan of getting prospects. 

The newspaper is an excellent source of pros- 
pects to the thoughtful agent, especially if he has 
some general knowledge of business affairs. But 
the average agent looks for his material in the 
most obvious quarters such as the list of real 
estate transfers, records of mortgages, marriages, 
births, etc. The names derived from these an- 
nouncements are disadvantageous because so 
many canvassing lists are compiled from them. 



36 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

The application of life insurance to purposes of 
business protection is a comparatively new de- 
velopment of our work, but one which offers a 
fine field for the agent who will specialize in it. 

The agent who follows this line of effort should 
always be on the lookout for individual applica- 
tions among members and employees of concerns 
which he solicits for business insurance. By do- 
ing so he may counteract the sole disadvantage 
of this kind of work, which is the length of time 
usually occupied in reaching a decision. 

Prospects for small amounts of business in- 
surance are quite generally neglected. Neverthe- 
less, the need is greatest among this class and 
they can readily be made to see it. Numerous 
co-partnerships in every city are conducted on a 
few thousand dollars of capital without a cent of 
surplus. The death of one of the partners, and 
the withdrawal of the money representing his 
share of the business, almost invariably results 
in serious embarrassment, if not dissolution of the 
firm. 

An agent working in a business community can 
find no better avenue for his energies than co- 
partnership insurance. He will encounter few 
competitors systematically engaged in this direc- 
tion ; prospects are plenteous and the proposition 
applies to an unquestionably existent need. 

It may not be out of place to express a word of 
warning against the tendency to look afar and in 
secluded places for prospects. Most agents go 
about the matter as though they were detectives 
and the prospects in hiding, instead of being 
everywhere, and the best very often nearest at 
hand. 

The following method will prove effective in 
suggesting many prospects who might otherwise 
be overlooked. Let the agent repeat a number 
of specific purposes of life insurance thus: 



PROSPECTS 37 

"Life insurance will provide for the education 
of children ; will secure a daughter's independence 
for life; will promote a business man's project to 
retire at a certain time; will assure the profes- 
sional man of an income after his talents have 
begun to wane ; will perpetuate the teacher's sal- 
ary when he has become superannuated; will 
supply executors with means to discharge the in- 
heritance tax; will cancel the mortgage or other 
indebtedness; will strengthen credit by safe- 
guarding against the contingency of death, etc." 

After each statement ask yourself: "Who 
among the persons I know needs this character 
of protection?" 

PROSPECTS— (3) 

The form letter is effective in securing prospects, 
provided good judgment is exercised in its use; 
otherwise it may be a source of great waste. 

Wide and indiscriminating circularizing is not to 
be recommended. The mailing list should be com- 
posed of picked names, if possible. Failing this, it 
is advisable to address the occupants of a large of- 
fice building, men in a particular profession or line 
of business, or the members of some prominent com- 
mercial organization. 

It is sheer waste of effort to send out an apparent 
circular letter. There are printing processes which 
can be distinguished from typewriting only by the 
closest scrutiny. The concerns that furnish this 
service will insert the name of the addressee in type 
to match the body of the communication. Cheap 
work is always false economy, but particularly 
so in this connection. 

Effective circularizing is extremely difficult. The 
mechanical processes should always be entrusted to 
a specialist. Unless you are quite capable of the 
composition it will pay to enlist the aid of an expert. 



B 



38 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

Money should not be stinted, nor pains spared in 
the production of a circular letter. 

Details are of the utmost importance. Each 
letter should be autographed and mailed at the first 
class rate. Every form letter should be accompan- 
ied by a return card and addressed, return envelope, 
unstamped. Careful observation in numerous in- 
stances has led to the conclusion that a stamped re- 
turn envelope is a needless expense and frequent 
cause of waste time. A man will sometimes reply 
merely because he "did not wish to keep your 
stamp." The person who is deterred from replying 
on account of the cost of postage can not be con- 
sidered a very good prospect. 

Only a small percentage of those addressed will 
return cards, at the best. Exhaustive experience in 
this method of sowing seed has convinced me that 
the richest yield will be obtained by direct cultiva- 
tion, — that is, by following up the letters closely. As 
a means of securing direct business, circular letters 
are almost worthless. As a means of introduction 
and of creating preliminary interest they may be 
made very effective. 

The character of the letter is, of course, the most 
important factor in the matter. Undue length is to 
be avoided, but it is possible to err on the side of 
brevity. You may have heard of the young man 
who was instructed to write "a short and tactful let- 
ter." After much thought he produced the follow- 
ing: "Sam Smith. Dear Sir: Excuse me. Yours 
truly, John Jones." You must say enough to con- 
vey an idea clearly ; otherwise, your effort is wasted. 

The aim should be to say something which will 
arouse attention or excite interest, but it is a mistake 
to tell more of the story than is necessary for that 
purpose. Terse, pointed sentences will have the 
best effect on business men. 

The specimen form letters in the succeeding, pasres 



PROSPECTS 39 

consist of two very brief communications. In the 
former an attempt is made to excite enough curiosity 
to induce a reading of the lengthy enclosure. The 
method employed in that case is somewhat of a de- 
parture from principle and success was due to pe- 
culiar conditions. Few men will resist the appeal to 
read "one of the most remarkable documents of its 
kind." Hardly one but will, at least, glance at it, 
and after reading the first paragraph it is not in 
human nature to stop. 

A single letter is seldom sufficient. The cumula- 
tive effect of two or three short communications, 
each containing a definite idea, will produce the best 
results. The return card and envelope should be 
enclosed in each of the letters, which ought to be 
mailed on consecutive days. 

Letters referring to domestic insurance, and es- 
pecially income insurance, had better be addressed 
to the prospect at his home, where this kind of com- 
munication is apt to receive greater attention than 
it would at his office and where he is in an atmos- 
phere conducive to a favorable consideration of the 
subject. 

In many cases, letters delivered at the residence 
will come to the notice of prospective beneficiaries. 
The consequence will sometimes be to enlist the aid 
of a wife in your project. On the other hand it will 
sometimes result in arousing her opposition, but if 
you are to contend with that, you had better have it 
at the outset than after you have put in good work 
on the case. 

Even though form letters are sent to the homes 
of prospects, the follow-up calls should be made at 
their offices. 

I will recount a recent experience as illustrating a 
highly important point in connection with form let- 
ters and at the same time showing that success and 



40 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

failure sometimes hinge on an apparently trivial de- 
tail. 

A newly appointed general agent came to me with 
a copy of a form letter which he asked me to read 
and criticize. 

I considered it an excellent letter and told him so. 

He then said that he had sent out several thou- 
sand copies of it, well produced, fully stamped, and 
so forth, but had received almost no replies. No 
attempt had been made to follow them up. 

I asked at what time the letters, which all bore 
down-town office addresses, had been mailed, and 
was informed that the office boy had taken them to 
the post each evening when he left for home. The 
inference was that every letter had been delivered 
by the first mail. 

"Now let us look at the other side of the fence in 
this matter," I suggested. "Your letters were prac- 
tically all addressed to successful business men. This 
kind of man comes down town in the morning eager 
to plunge into his work. His mind is occupied with 
some feature of it before he sits down to his desk. 
And the first thing he encounters, perhaps, is your 
letter on the top of his waiting mail. It is an ob- 
struction in his way. He resents its presence. It 
exasperates him. He throws it into the waste basket 
with no more than a glance/' 

"Let us come round at half past four and take a 
look at the same man. He has done a good day's 
work and is well pleased with himself. His desk is 
clear and he waits only for the last mail before going 
home. He relaxes, tilts back his chair and lights a 
cigar. A casual visitor or any sort of diversion 
would be welcome. If your form letter should ar- 
rive at this time, it is a ten to one bet that it would 
be read with attention." 

"All you need is to attach a time fuse to those let- 
ters. Find out from the postal people when your 



PROSPECTS 41 

mail must be deposited at the main office in order to 
insure delivery between half past four and five 
o'clock. Then send out another lot of those letters 
to the previous addresses. Very few of the recip- 
ients will realize that they have seen the communi- 
cation before." 

The advice was followed with the result that an 
unusually large number of replies came from letters 
which had fallen flat in the first instance merely be- 
cause they had been delivered at an unpropritious 
hour. 

In other instances which have come to my notice, 
failure of good form letters has been due to defect 
in some minor detail. 

PROSPECTS— (4) 

The following form letters have been successfully 
used in connection with Monthly Income canvasses. 
The first letter, with its enclosure is mailed so that 
it will reach the prospect's home on Saturday, with 
the idea of giving the appeal a chance to work dur- 
ing the holiday, and the second is timed to arrive 
before he leaves for work on Monday morning. An 
agent calls upon him at his office in the course of 
that day. 

The "Howard Letter," which is sent out with the 
former of the circular letters, may be obtained from 
The Insurance Press, New York City. 

No. 1 

"Mr. Richard Roe, 

1825 Chase St., City. 
Dear Sir : — ■ 

The accompanying is one of the most remark- 
able documents of its kind. It is genuine and so 
full of warm human interest that it cannot fail 
to grip you. 

Truly yours, 

JOHN DOE, Special Agent." 



42 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

ENCLOSURE 

May 27, 1909. 
Dear Bill: 

[Acknowledging your letter of yesterday, I 
would gladly increase my life insurance $50,000, 
if you could place it. But you couldn't. For 
tomorrow I am to be operated on for cancer, 
and the doctors tell me that my chance of sur- 
vival is one in twenty. 

This news will surprise you, since it is less 
than a year ago that your examiner passed me — 
the fourth time in ten years. I am trying to be 
hopeful, but there is an oppressive solemnity in 
the thought that this may be my last day on 
earth. 

I have been putting my house in order. It did 
not require an expert accountant. My assets 
are: (1) Cash in bank, $341; (2) Household 
and personal effects, not worth selling; (3) 
Life insurance, $30,240. 

Liabilities as follows: (1) Mortgage on 
house, $4,500 ; (2) Household monthly bills, 
$195. 

This is my financial exhibit after sixteen 
years in business. Not a strong showing for a 
man of 37 ! But I began on nothing, and had 
to work my way up. Just as things are begin- 
ning to come my way, I find myself on the brink 
of the unknown. 

My only comfort in this crisis is my life in- 
surance, and I honestly thank you, Bill, for 
your counsel and persistence. Sometimes I have 
almost hated you for loading me with such a 
burden. On a yearly income never higher than 
$3,800, it has been a big strain to carry $30,240. 
Last year out of every dollar I earned, 16 cents 
went for life insurance premiums. 

But it was worth the sacrifice. What else 



PROSPECTS 43 

would I be leaving behind today? If I had 
banked the amount of the premium, my savings 
would have been less than $4,000. And I doubt 
if I would have saved even that much, for some 
times it was a terrific struggle to pay the prem- 
ium, and only the fear of forfeiture forced me 
to it. 

But now I thank heaven that I took the in- 
surance and kept it for it enables me to go into 
the operating room with anxiety only for my- 
self, and none for Nell and Buster. 

If I do not come out alive, the funeral ex- 
penses may be paid by that weekly premium 
policy of $240 which I have carried just for that 
purpose; and the $5,000 policy I took when I 
built my house, will wipe off the mortgage, leav- 
ing $25,000 clear. This even at 4 per cent 
would yield an income of $1,000, which, with 
no house rent to pay, should make Nell and the 
boy fairly comfortable. 

I face the uncertainty of tomorrow with nei- 
ther remorse nor worry, and I owe this peace of 
mind largely to you. You helped me choose 
the wiser course. Ten years ago I confidently 
looked forward to riches and old age. Tomor- 
row, life and its opportunities may be cut off. 
My air castles will have tumbled, and my cher- 
ished hopes as dead as my flesh. 

However, through life insurance my family 
will receive some of the money I did not live 
long enough to make. They will have a home 
and a sure income for life — things which even 
had I lived, I could not have guaranteed to them 
because of the uncertainties of health and of 
business. Life insurance has done for my fam- 
ily what I could not do myself. My own exper- 
ience is a conclusive demonstration of its 
blessed service to humanity. 



44 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

It may seem strange for me to write you thus 
from my grave-side, as it were, but I wanted 
you to know of my heartfelt gratitude to you, 
and the great cause you represent. 
Yours sincerely, 

HOWARD. 
No. 2 
"Mr. Richard Roe, 

1825 Chase St., City. 
Dear Sir: — 

The writer of the 'Howard Letter' found a 
deep satisfaction in the knowledge that 'Nell 
and Buster' would receive a substantial sum at 
his death. But perhaps there was a 'fly in the 
ointment' after all. He may have had disturb- 
ing doubts as to what would ultimately become 
of the money. Possibly he knew that thou- 
sands of widows lose the money left to them 
by their husbands. 

The Monthly Income Policy — the policy that 
insures your insurance — sets all such apprehen- 
sions at rest and makes it certain that the pro- 
vision which you make for your dependents 
will be enjoyed by them without peradventure. 
Truly yours, 
JOHN DOE, Special Agent." 
The following enquiry card is enclosed with each 
letter together with an addressed, but not stamped, 
return envelope : 

"Please submit to me a statement of a 
MONTHLY INCOME POLICY providing 

for the payment of $ per month during 

the life of my beneficiary. 

My age is .... , that of my beneficiary is 

Name 

Occupation 

Address " 



PROSPECTS 45 

PROSPECTS— (5) 

By the exercise of intelligent discrimination in 
the pursuit of prospects the agent may eliminate 
most of the undesirable material and avoid much 
trouble for himself and his company. Whilst the 
general average of rejections is 10 per cent of all 
applications, the experience of some agents is 
considerably lower and that of others consider- 
ably higher than the average. Poor and doubtful 
risks are naturally disposed to consider proposi- 
tions for life insurance. Such men, if prospects 
at all, are the least desirable kind. But the agent 
who looks for the easiest avenues in his work will 
eagerly connect with cases of this kind and write 
their applications "on the chance" of getting them 
through. 

It is frequently said that the most difficult part 
of a life insurance solicitor's work and that which 
consumes the largest portion of his time and ef- 
fort is the endeavor to secure the signatures of 
reluctant prospects. This conclusion does not 
seem to reach the root of the matter. It would 
be nearer the mark to state that for the most part 
the difficulty and waste of energy are attributable 
to the common tendency on the part of agents to 
mistake suspects for prospects. Most men in our 
business spend a great deal of time in barking 
up trees which have no 'possum in them. Few of 
us can solve the conundrum: "When is a pros- 
pect not a prospect?" We don't seem to be able 
to distinguish pay dirt from dump. We spend 
weeks and months in working material that will 
not assay nine cents to the ton, even though we 
get it out. 

A highly successful financier has said that one 
of the most valuable faculties in business life is 
that of knowing when to pocket a loss. It is a 
lesson which we would do well to learn. Once 
we have started to work on a supposed prospect, 



46 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

we don't appear to be able to drop him. Some of 
us have our canvassing lists laden with dead- 
wood, which impedes our progress just as barn- 
acles do that of a ship. The writer is convinced 
that the possession of too many prospects is one 
of the most common troubles with agents. 

The intuitive sense which almost instantly 
gauges a man's value as a prospect is given to 
only a fortunate few. All of us may acquire it to 
a greater or less degree by cultivation. But even 
without possessing it, there are methods by which 
we may protect ourselves against excessive waste 
in this connection. 

Before suggesting the practice which the 
writer has in many years of experience found 
profitable, it will be well to impress a preliminary 
thought upon you. In the majority of instances 
the first time that you make a complete statement 
of your proposition, your opportunity for closing 
is the best that you will ever have. As a rule 
your prospect becomes less susceptible to your 
influence with every succeeding effort. Many a 
man who is a genuine prospect at an early stage 
of the canvass ceases to be one later. 

"But," you say, "if that is the case, how does it 
happen that I seldom close on the first interview 
and more often on the fourth or fifth than on the 
second?" The answer is: Because you seldom, 
if ever, attempt to close on the first interview. 
You pass over your best opportunity without a 
thought of availing yourself of it. By the time 
you put forth a serious effort the situation has 
become difficult and with the increase of the diffi- 
culty you increase your effort. When, ultimately, 
you close your man after three or four attempts, 
it is at the expense of much more labor and energy 
than would have been necessary to the accom- 
plishment of the object on the first or second 
interview. 



PROSPECTS 47 

This is a sufficient reason, without considering 
the saving of time, for forming the habit of en- 
deavoring to close on the first favorable inter- 
view. If on that occasion you have said all that 
you have to say and have given your prospect 
the chance of saying anything that he may de- 
sire, there can be no logical reason for not clos- 
ing — provided your man is in reality a prospect. 

On this assumption the writer has for long 
based the following practice : Provided that the 
proposition has been fully explained, he will not 
call upon a man more than twice unless he can 
give a satisfactory reason for not closing at once. 
If a hole cannot be made with a gimlet, why 
waste time and labor trying to make it with a 
hammer? 

It is possible that this method may result in 
the loss of a few cases which might be closed 
by persuasion, but we must remember that the 
difficult case will not net more commission ordi- 
narily than the easier one. The best method is 
that which will produce the greatest results, and 
it is beyond doubt that the time we spend in 
trying to overcome mere obstinacy and procrasti- 
nation might better be employed on less obdurate 
cases. 

The suggestions advanced herein chiefly con- 
template the needs of agents who write small 
and medium-sized applications. Solicitors who 
specialize on large business select their prospects 
on acquired information, and take pains to make 
adequate preparation for canvassing them. 



CHAPTER X 
POLICY ILLUSTRATIONS 

A PRACTICE of long standing in our busi- 
ness is to give the prospective buyer an il- 
lustration of a policy, on a specially prepared 
form setting forth in the main the premium 
charge, surrender values and settlement options. 
This practice is not as common as it used 
to be, partly because of the opposition of sev- 
eral insurance departments to estimated results, 
partly because of the passing of deferred dividend 
insurance, and party because agents are learning the 
disadvantages of employing illustrations. The prac- 
tice is, however, still much in vogue and nearly all 
companies furnish their agents with the necessary 
blanks. My observation has led to the conviction 
that this practice is more abuseful than useful. 

The purpose of an illustration is to give the pros- 
pect in figures information about the policy which 
the agent hopes to sell to him. Now most men have 
an inherent dislike for figures and will be repelled 
by them in the massive form which they assume in 
an illustration. Even though he has asked for the 
illustration, the prospect is likely to experience this 
repulsion when he sees it. 

When an agent leaves an illustration without 
going over it carefully and explaining it in detail, 
the chances are altogether in favor of the prospect 
not understanding it. If the. prospect has time to 
listen to an explanation of the prepared illustration, 
the agent with a pencil and piece of scratch paper 

48 



POLICY ILLUSTRATIONS 49 

can give him all the information desired in a much 
simpler and more impressive manner. 

To leave an illustration with a prospect is, not in- 
frequently, to furnish a competitor with a weapon 
to use against you. A rival agent needs no special 
ability to puncture the most attractive illustration 
ever prepared and to show it up in an unfavorable 
light. This, not because of any weakness in the il- 
lustration, but because of the ignorance of the aver- 
age prospect. 

The illustration form, moreover, gives the pros- 
pect too good a chance to put the agent off. "I have 
your figures, but have not found time to look them 
over yet." How often has such a remark fallen on 
the ears of the agent, and what can he do about it? 
His illustration has put him in a position where it is 
almost impossible for him to hasten matters and 
push the case to a conclusion. 

"But," you say, "when the prospect asks for a 
specimen policy or an illustration, I must give it to 
him." Not at all. Tell him that Life Insurance is 
a technical subject. It is highly improbable that he 
will understand a printed statement and you can 
explain it in half the time that it will take him to 
study it. Something of that sort, tactfully stated 
will generally carry your point. 

It will carry your point, that is to say, provided 
your prospect is acting in good faith. If he is 
merely making the request for the purpose of put- 
ting you off, he will insist upon having the illustra- 
tion and his insistence will warn you that you are 
wasting time on him. This, and similar tests, should 
be part of your regular canvassing methods. You 
may save a great amount of valuable time by detect- 
ing triflers at the outset of your dealings with them. 

I do not hesitate to say that the illustration form 
is more of a hindrance than a help in selling Life 
Insurance. One of the chief objections to it is that 



50 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

the feature of the policy which it usually makes most 
prominent is the one which should be kept most in 
the background — the non-forfeiture values. To im- 
press these strongly on the mind of the purchaser of 
a policy is to prompt him to surrender or borrow 
when his monetary affairs begin to pinch him a lit- 
tle. 

Better would it be for many an insurer and for 
many orphans and widows if the policyholder had 
never heard of non-forfeiture values. To dwell on 
the surrender privileges of a policy is to misplace 
the emphasis. 

The vast majority of insurance buyers are con- 
cerned about two things only — the protection af- 
forded and the price to be paid. "What can I get 
and what will it cost me ?" These are the two points 
in which every insurer is most interested, and they 
need no elaborate illustration to make them plain. 
Experienced agents find that the most effective way 
of presenting a policy is by expatiating on the char- 
acter and extent of the protection afforded by it. 

The manager who discourages his men from the 
use of illustration forms for their prospects, does 
them a good service. The most valuable use to 
which such blanks can be put is for the agent to 
fill out one for the prospect in hand, study it care- 
fully and thus familiarize himself with the salient 
points of the policy, then throw it in the waste paper 
basket. 

To go before the prospect thus empty-handed, but 
with the mind well furnished and enthusiastic over 
the splendid features of the policy, will be vastly 
more effective in securing the desired result than 
the most attractive and carefully prepared illustra- 
tion put into the prospect's hands in the hope that it 
will do the work. The latter is the lazy man's 
method and deserves to fail. 

The enthusiastic and convincing agent, convincing 



POLICY ILLUSTRATIONS 51 

because he is enthusiastic, compels and impresses by 
his presentation of the policy with pencil and by 
word of mouth, while the illustration form is cold 
and lifeless, unable to demand attention, and is read 
with care and understanding in only exceptional 
cases. It is an easy matter to get away from an il- 
lustration, but it is a different proposition to elude 
the wide-awake, determined agent. 

It may be well to add a few words on the subject 
of the use of literature in canvassing. All compan- 
ies supply their agents with numerous excellent leaf- 
lets. These contain descriptions of policies and 
arguments for insurance. It is not expected that 
they will prove direct means of writing business. 
Their purpose is to afford the agent mediums for 
creating interest. You should never depend upon 
literature to do more than this. 

The beginner is apt to overdo the use of literature 
and usually hardly has pockets enough to carry his 
supply. Some of the objections to illustrations apply 
equally to leaflets and similar matter. By far the 
best plan is to assimilate the contents of these 
printed documents and so be in a position to con- 
vey their message by word of mouth. 



CHAPTER XI 

COMPETITION 

COMPETITION creates business. This is a 
truth which the salesman learns only from 
experience. Usually he starts out with the idea 
that if he might have a ''virgin" field to browse in 
he would be in clover. If he is sent to a little- 
worked territory he finds himself in the situation 
of the life insurance agents of the early days who 
were really missionaries, carrying a strange gos- 
pel. They needed to convert and educate a pros- 
pect, and commonly spent from three months to a 
year in the effort to secure his application. With 
the growth of Competition, involving, as it did, 
the spread of information, the difficulties of the 
business decreased, whilst the demand for life in- 
surance increased. 

In the City of New York there are said to be up- 
wards of 3,000 men devoting their entire time to 
selling life insurance, and at least as many part-time 
agents. Despite the fact, or rather, largely on ac- 
count of it, New York is the best life insurance ter- 
ritory in the world. Owing to the constant can- 
vassing most business men in that city are prospects 
and, at all times, a large proportion of them are 
seriously considering the purchase of life insurance. 

The novice is super-sensitive to Competition, and 
disposed to exaggerate its importance. Although 
his Company has two hundred and odd rivals in the 
legal reserve ranks, it depresses him to learn that a 
prospective buyer favors one of the others. If he 
52 



COMPETITION 53 

encounters the same company in competition twice 
in a month he concludes that it is doing the bulk of 
the business in his town and he begins to wish that 
he were working for it. He cannot understand that 
to remain in business each company must present 
some points of special attraction. He thinks that his 
own Company's policies should embrace all these 
features that act as thorns in his side. 

The beginner can't take Competition good-na- 
turedly. It irritates him. His work is hard enough 
anyway, without some other fellow butting into it. 
He is doing business on strictly honest lines, and 
he is quite sure that his rival is a crook. The pros- 
pect who will not admit his claims for the superior- 
ity of his Company must be influenced by some ul- 
terior motive, and is probably accepting a rebate. 

To the veteran, on the other hand, Competition is 
the spice of business. It gives zest to his work. He 
is ever eager for the fray, like the warhorse champ- 
ing on the bit at the sound of the bugle. He fully 
appreciates the value of Competition and welcomes 
it. "The more, the merrier," is his motto. 

What has been said refers to Competition in gen- 
eral. It is, of course, desirable to avoid it in par- 
ticular cases. If that cannot be done, it should be 
minimized. A great deal of the Competition experi- 
enced is unnecessary. When a small boy is stung 
by a wasp he rubs the place until he sets up a serious 
irritation. The grown man knows better. He either 
ignores the sting, or lets it go with a dab of am- 
monia. At the first suggestion of another company 
the beginner gets excited and plunges into a hot ar- 
gument. The old-hand sheds the obstacle as a duck 
sheds water. He says "very good company" with 
an air that implies "not to be considered a serious 
competitor though", and goes on with his talk. If 
the prospect persists, the salesman comes back with, 
"The Blank Life is a good company. I have nothing 



54 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

to say against it. But I am selling the So-and-So 
Mutual and I'll stick to my text if you please." 

Competition will occasionally be too pronounced 
to be ignored or brushed aside. In such a case, fight 
tooth and nail, but do it only on the level. In our 
effort to beat a competitor we must never forget our 
obligation to increase the prospect's respect for the 
Institution of Life Insurance and his appreciation 
of its beneficence. 

You can't give a prospect the impression that a 
certain company is dishonest in the treatment of its 
policyholders or that a certain agent is untrust- 
worthy, without impairing his estimate of Life In- 
surance companies and their representatives as a 
whole, and, perhaps, creating suspicion in his mind 
as to you and your Company. 

Don't fall into this error. Assure your man that, 
as an institution, Legal Reserve Life Insurance is 
sound throughout; that the companies operating 
under it are uniformly fair in the administration of 
their trust ; and that their representatives, as a body, 
are at least the equals in integrity and efficiency of 
any other class of business men. 

Such an attitude is demanded by the best ethics 
of salesmanship and is calculated to inspire the con- 
fidence of your prospect. 

It is seldom necessary or advisable to make a pre- 
cise comparison of policies. The technicalities in- 
volved in such a proceeding are likely to befog the 
prospect's mind. The tactful and creative salesman 
will prefer to meet the competition in a different 
manner. He will say something like the following: 
"Mr. Blank, all legal reserve companies are sound. 
Any one of them will pay your claim and give you 
full value for your money. You know that the chief 
difference between two shoe shops or two haber- 
dashers is that one can offer you goods better suited 
to your taste than the other. So it is with the many 



COMPETITION 55 

excellent life insurance companies. One will be able 
to sell you a policy better adapted to your require- 
ments than another. Now I think that we can do 
just that thing, and I believe that you will agree 
with me when I have described our contract." Then 
he goes on with his canvass, expatiating on some 
selling feature which his competitor's policy lacks. 

Now-a-days, manufacturers go to a great deal of 
pains to furnish their salesmen with what they call 
"talking points." Very often these are of little im- 
portance to the purchaser. Their value consists in 
the opportunity they afford the salesman to enlarge 
on something which his competitors do not have. 
This practice of providing "talking points" is fol- 
lowed by Life Insurance companies and each of 
them has one or two special policy features on which 
its agents dwell. 

The experienced Life Insurance salesman is 
posted on the specialties of his rivals. In Competi- 
tion, whilst he plays on his own talking point, he 
contrives by suggestion to discount those of his com- 
petitor. For instance, We arouse a desire for the 
combination contract and the total disability clause. 
At the same time we skilfully manage to instil into 
our prospect's mind the idea that a second year's 
surrender value is of no consequence to him, or that 
a coupon policy is a delusion and a snare. 

Now in conclusion, just a few hints as to conduct 
in Competition. 

Accept Competition with cheerful good humor. 
Readily concede your prospect's right to investigate 
the comparative merits of other companies. Never 
display vindictiveness, nor speak ill of another 
company or agent, even though you may have 
good ground for doing so. 

Don't allow Competition to disconcert you, or 
make you over-anxious. Treat it lightly. Assume 
an attitude of confident assurance. Intimate that, 



56 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

as a shrewd and fair business man, your prospect 
must decide in your favor. 

Appeal to any motive but friendship or charity. 
Be independent. Never ask favor, nor give the im- 
pression that you need it. 

If you have confidence in your Company, its pol- 
icies, and your ability in debate, the most satisfac- 
tory method of settling Competition is by inducing 
the prospect to give you and your competitor a hear- 
ing at the same time. This reduces the matter to a 
fight in the open, and the man with the clearer mind 
and cooler head will have all the advantage he could 
wish for. 

Take defeat philosophically and in good nature. 
Don't display chagrin to your competitor or the pros- 
pect. Even with the best of companies you must 
expect to lose in Competition sometimes. Turn 
your failures to account. Benefit by the experi- 
ence and make it a source of future strength. 

COMPARATIVE COMPETITION 

No matter how well posted the agent may be 
in competition he is advised to bear in mind that 
ratios and comparisons of statistical data of dif- 
ferent companies should be considered in connec- 
tion with the variations in conditions between 
companies as to features of their statements, 
some of which can only be properly explained by 
trained actuaries. The agent should, therefore, 
while pressing the strong points of his company 
upon his prospect, avoid as far as possible the 
raising of arguments which involve technicalities 
difficult, if not impossible, to make clear to the 
uninitiated. It is well, however, for the agent to 
be prepared to meet any such arguments, if put 
forth by his prospect. 

There are many arguments raised in competi- 
tion and backed up by figures which are capable 



COMPETITION 57 

of being offset when all the facts are considered. 
Thus the expense of procuring new business must 
be considered in connection with the volume re- 
tained. Large assets are to be considered in con- 
nection with liabilities and surplus; in every in- 
stance, in fact, varying factors enter into any 
comparison of figures and due allowance should 
be made for them. 



CHAPTER XII 
DELIVERING THE POLICY 

A GREAT many agents lack a proper appre- 
ciation of the service due from them to their 
company and their clients. Commissions are paid 
to field representatives on the tacit understanding 
that they will conduct their business to the best 
of their ability and that they will promote the 
interests of the company in every way possible. 
The more completely an agent fulfills these obliga- 
tions, the greater the benefit to himself. 

The efficient performance of technical tasks is 
the chief consideration but there is much besides. 
The agent should live and act so as to inspire 
respect for himself as a business man and as a 
member of the community. He should be zealous 
in upholding the prestige of his company and 
ready at all times to give information regarding 
it. He should not begrudge time spent in placat- 
ing a dissatisfied policy-holder or in reinstating 
lapsed business, even though no immediate profit 
may be derived from the work. As a matter of 
fact, such actions invariably entail material re- 
wards sooner or later. 

There are misguided agents whose sole object 
is to secure commissions. Such men never make 
their efforts as fully productive as they might be. 
They miss a large part of the opportunity afforded 
by our business and they lose the valuable cumu- 
lative effect of obtaining permanent clients. On 
the other hand, the agent who acts upon the prin- 
ts 



DELIVERING THE POLICY 59 

ciple that commission is paid to him in considera- 
tion of writing insurance, placing it properly and 
taking care of it thereafter, is constantly building 
up an ever increasing business of the best kind. 

The delivery of the policy is a phase of our 
work which is seldom performed efficiently and 
one involving many opportunities and duties that 
are commonly neglected. 

In a canvass not a word more should be said 
than is necessary to secure the application. The 
time for making a detailed exposition of the 
policy is after it has been delivered and paid for. 
In case the client can not give the necessary at- 
tention to the matter on the occasion of accept- 
ing the contract, the importance of it should be 
impressed Upon him and an early appointment 
made for the purpose. 

The agent who, having obtained a settlement, 
displays no further interest in the case, is actuated 
by a selfish motive which can not fail of detec- 
tion. It is equally certain that the new policy- 
holder will appreciate the pains taken by an effi- 
cient and conscientious agent to place a policy 
properly. He will also appreciate the later occa- 
sional calls, indicating continued interest and he 
is very apt to show his appreciation by influenc- 
ing business to such an agent. By practicing this 
method for a few years a solicitor may succeed in 
establishing himself in the enviable position of 
sole life insurance broker and adviser to a numer- 
ous clientele. 

As a rule a man is most susceptible to the ap- 
peal of life insurance when he has just taken out 
a policy. His mind has lately been seriously 
directed to the matter. It is freshly alive to the 
arguments for protection and investment. He 
has the satisfaction of knowing that he can get 
insurance and feels the pleasure of possession in 
all its novelty. This accounts for the fact that 



60 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

many a man is written for insurance shortly after 
having had a policy delivered to him. That the 
contracts are frequently in different companies is 
due to failure on the part of the agent who had 
the first opportunity to make the most of it. An 
explanation of the contract, bringing out new 
points, will increase the applicant's satisfaction 
with the transaction. In many instances a tactful 
suggestion for an additional policy, which may 
be had with no more trouble than a request, will 
be met with success, especially if a settlement 
has been secured previously. 

There are distinct advantages to the agent 
arising from giving his client a clear conception 
of the contract. He is likely to talk to his friends 
about it and the better he understands it, the 
better he can describe it. Under such circum- 
stances new business often results without any 
effort on the part of the solicitor. 

It is safe to say that more than half of all 
lapses would be avoided if a thorough under- 
standing of the contract conditions existed. The 
man who knows his policy is a difficult subject 
for the twister. 

Here is a sample letter, recommended for use 
when a policy is delivered. It should be placed 
inside the document and may be attached to it 
by a clip or paste : 
Dear Sir: 

In delivering to you the accompanying policy I 
do not consider that my obligation in connection 
with the transaction ceases. On the contrary, I 
shall be always ready to give you information re- 
garding this contract or insurance in general and 
to facilitate any business which you may have at 
any time with the Blank Mutual. 

I believe that you understand the policy which 
I have recommended as the best adapted to your 



DELIVERING THE POLICY 61 

requirements, but if doubt ever arises in your 
mind respecting any feature of it, I trust that 
you will apply to me for explanation. 

Thanking you for the present business, 
Sincerely yours, 

One policyholder, whom an agent had not seen 
in a year, was approached by a poacher with a 
proposition to drop his Blank Mutual policy of 
$5,000 and take $10,000 with the company misrepre- 
sented by the enterprising twister. In the course 
of the discussion the policyholder referred to his 
policy and was confronted by the letter which 
made a personal appeal to his good judgment 
and sense of fair play. He came to see the writer 
of that letter and made application for an addi- 
tional $5,000. 



CHAPTER XIII 
SETTLEMENTS 

THE advantage of selling Life Insurance con- 
sists of getting paid for it. This is a plati- 
tude, but it would seem that some agents do not 
recognize the truth contained in it. 

One writes $100,000; another $200,000. The 
ledger account of the former shows 100% P. F. 
(paid for), and that of the latter 50% N. T. (not 
taken). They report the same amount of net 
business and earn the same amount of commis- 
sion, but there is the greatest difference in their 
performances. One has secured the result with 
the utmost degree of economy; the other only by 
a great waste of his time and that of office em- 
ployees, not to mention expense of medical ex- 
aminations, inspections and unnecessary issues. 
Moreover, it is highly probable that the business 
of the former will renew in much greater ratio 
to production than will that of the latter. 

Getting an application is not selling a policy. 
It is simply taking an order for one. There is no 
great trick in that. Getting the settlement is 
where salesmanship comes in. When you fail to 
deliver a contract which has been issued to you, 
you have been fooling or you have been fooled. 
Don't let it happen often enough to be noticeable. 
It doesn't look well in a record. 

The books of all companies show a great wast- 
age in the business of some agents, due to poor 
settlements. After a policy has been put in force, 

62 



SETTLEMENTS 63 

it happens not infrequently that more work is re- 
quired to collect the premium than was needed 
to get the application. 

There are three favorable occasions for secur- 
ing a satisfactory settlement: 

1. When the application is written ; 

2. When the examination is made; 

3. When the policy is delivered. 

After that the difficulty increases in direct ratio 
to the lapse of time. 

Our effort should be directed to obtain: (1) 
Full annual premium in cash ; (2) semi-annual 
premium in cash; (3) quarterly in cash; (4) as 
much cash as possible and short-time notes in 
series; (5) never less than the amount of the 
medical examination fee. 

If your Prospect is "poor pay" you had better 
find it out at the time of writing him than later. 
The surest way of testing him is to require 
SOME cash with the application, and the pay- 
ment of a reasonable proportion within thirty 
days of the date of the policy. 

If your man is not going to meet his notes, 
the sooner you know it the better. Don't take 
a chance of being charged with the net which 
must be settled in sixty days. If the payment 
of the premium must be extended beyond that 
time, take a series of notes and make the first 
fall due at as early a date as possible — not later 
than thirty days. If you take a sixty-day, or 
longer, note for the first payment, it should be 
discountable. 

It may be necessary to explain why you ask 
for a settlement with the application. Your reply 
to the enquiry should be somewhat as follows: 
"If I receive your premium now, Mr. Blank, 
your insurance will go into full force and effect 
from the moment your application is accepted. 
Between that date and the issuance of the policy 



64 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

several days will elapse. Even after I receive it 
there may be considerable delay in its delivery, 
owing to your absence from the city, perhaps, or 
to your being too busy to see me at once. Now, 
suppose that you die in the meanwhile. That is 
not very likely, I'll admit, but it is less improb- 
able that you may become ill. In any case, if the 
Company has received your premium, the insur- 
ance is just as effective as though the policy lay 
in your safe. 

"On the other hand, if you defer payment, your 
insurance cannot become operative until the de- 
livery of the policy to you in good health. How- 
ever, the premium is charged from the date of 
issue and it would seem to be good business to 
have the benefit of all you are paying for." 

If you will remember that it is to the appli- 
cant's interest to give you a check with the appli- 
cation, and if you will habituate yourself to the 
idea that it is the correct and ordinary thing for 
him to do, you will ask for it in an expectant and 
matter-of-fact manner which may be depended 
upon to gain his assent almost invariably. 

RENEWALS 

"Written business" is of itself valueless. It 
may have no other outcome than loss to agent, 
applicant and company. The company, indeed, 
cannot derive any gain from it until at least two 
premiums have been paid. 

The continuance of insurance is to the advan- 
tage of all parties concerned, whilst lapse entails 
equally extensive waste. Even though the agent 
may have no renewal interest, he loses a client 
whose good will and influence might have been 
a valuable asset. 

There is nothing in the nature of our business 
to preclude the renewal of it all, except in cases 
of death. Many agents do in fact secure a per- 



RENEWALS 65 

sistency approximating 100 per cent year after 
year. Examination of the business and methods 
of such agents reveals the presence of two im- 
portant conditions in every instance. Their set- 
tlements are mainly for cash on the annual pre- 
mium basis. They make a practice of seeing 
policyholders frequently. As a certain conse- 
quence of the latter habit they get a considerable 
proportion of their business from clients and with 
the aid of them. 

The stability of our business must depend upon 
capable and conscientious service. The agent 
who, sinking consideration of self-interest, ad- 
vances the proposition best adapted to the needs 
of the prospect and the protection of his bene- 
ficiary, is working in the surest way for his own 
advantage and the welfare of his company. Poli- 
cies placed by such methods remain in force sim- 
ply because the holders cannot better themselves 
by change. 

But efficient service demands more than the 
selection of a suitable policy. It involves the 
conveyance to the purchaser, with the contract, 
of a thorough understanding of it. It involves 
constant and diligent oversight of the interests 
of the policyholder, his beneficiary, the agent and 
the company. The performance of these obliga- 
tions must tend to the ultimate profu of the 
agent. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE BLUES 

NOW let us have a little talk about devils — 
not the violent sort that took possession of 
the Gaderene swine and hustled them into the sea 
• — but the bacterial kind, the little insidious germs 
that get into our system unawares,, sapping our 
will, our nerves and our energy and setting up 
the condition which we call "the blues." 

The progress of normal health is not over a hori- 
zontal plane but along a succession of undulations. 
We are seldom at par but generally either above or 
below it. If we might have an instrument like the 
steam gauge to register the physical and mental fluc- 
tuations of a day, we should find the indicator con- 
stantly moving up and down. In varying degrees we 
are all subject to these fluctuations, although we may 
be conscious only of the occasional tidal waves or 
periods of excessive ebb. 

In the very nature of things the mental life of a 
salesman is marked by pronounced curves. He is 
almost invariably of the mercurial temperament, 
readily elated or cast down. If a phlegmatic man 
succeeds in our business, it is by dint of hard work 
and dogged persistence, overcoming inadaptability. 

The salesman is called upon for the exercise of a 
great amount of nervous energy. Most of the time 
he is on a high tension and, like a steel spring on a 
strain, must experience a corresponding relaxation. 
He can never en i 'oy the equanimity of a salaried em- 
ploye, any more than a salaried employe can experi- 

66 



THE BLUES 67 

ence the pleasures and triumphs of the salesman. 
The work of the latter is irregular and punctuated 
by deep disappointments, as well as sudden suc- 
cesses. Like that of the elevator boy it is a life of 
ups and downs. 

[Anxiety keeps the life insurance agent ever on 
the threshold of depression. If an unusually long 
interval occurs between applications, anxiety de- 
velops into worry, and this, in turn grows into de- 
spondency. 

Beginners in the business, lacking the fortitude 
derived from tested ability and recollection of past 
successes, are particularly prone to depression. 
Their minds are centered upon securing applications 
to the exclusion of all other considerations. They 
do not appreciate the value of work which is not im- 
mediately productive and have no conception of the 
benefit of adverse experience. They gauge their 
progress and accomplishment by their cash account. 
On the other hand, if the beginner, by good fortune 
closes a large case, he becomes over-sanguine, there- 
by sowing the seeds of disappointment. 

The experienced agent too, is apt to suffer a re- 
action of energy when an unusually long time 
elapses without a sale. Therefore, it is a good plan 
for the man who specializes on big business to fill 
in with small cases, and so maintain the satisfaction 
of constant achievement. 

Now I am not going to advise you never to get 
"blue." The see-saw nature of your business makes 
it inevitable that you should do so at times. I 
will urge upon you, however, not to allow an attack 
of depression to develop, and above all, never to 
nurse it. I will suggest a few methods of warding 
off this condition and dispelling it. 

Don't be anxious about your business. Take suc- 
cess for granted, and, like Sempronius, deserve it. 
If a disappointment befalls, put it behind you at 



68 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

once. Bury your failures as the doctors do. Never 
take the count. After a knock-down get on your 
feet instantly and go at it again, before the blue- 
devil germ can find lodgment in your system. Four 
or five hours of straight canvassing with fierce 
energy will take the sting out of the worst defeat 
and perhaps yield compensation for it. 

Don't worry. It is the most harmful and the most 
useless of all emotions. Yesterday is a closed book. 
Tomorrow may never be. Live in Today and make 
the most of it. We know from experience that very 
few of the ills we dread come to pass and those few 
are seldom as bad as we had pictured them. 

Don't brood or recite the tale of your woes. The 
fact that you are infected by the blue bug is not jus- 
tification for exposing your associates. 

Above all, never sink to that lowest stage of deg- 
radation — self-pity. The man who gets into that 
mental morass is lost. At the first approach of such 
a feeling go out and hire a strong man to kick you. 

Do you know what embolism is? A physician 
would describe it more precisely, but it is fairly cor- 
rect to say that it is the condition produced by par- 
ticles of foreign matter, called emboli, entering the 
blood vessels and impeding or stopping circulation. 

Every time that you permit a "grouch" or a de- 
pressing idea to enter the thought channels, you 
court embolism. If not immediately removed these 
poisonous elements will create an infarct, or af- 
fected region, with the resultant stagnation and per- 
version of the entire mental processes. 

Purging and stimulation of the circulatory sys- 
tem is the accepted treatment for physical embolism. 
Mental embolism calls for a similar remedy. Get 
the grouch or the blues out of your system by purg- 
ing the mind with cheerful thoughts and stimulating 
it with healthy hopefulness. 



THEBLUES 69 

Both forms of embolism may be fatal. Of the 
two, the mental death is by far the worse. 

We must all expect to experience depression on 
occasion. We can not avoid the attacks, but we may 
reduce their effects to a minimum and the best way 
of doing this is to nip them in the bud. 

At the first sign of depression seek the cause and 
apply a sensible remedy. Maybe you have had a 
rejection. What of it? It is only part of the aver- 
age which you must expect and the best remedy is 
to put in another application. You have not writ- 
ten a case in a fortnight. That fact increases the 
probability of your landing one today and, in any 
case, you will not improve the prospect by moping. 

Perhaps you are stale as a. consequence of over- 
work. In that event a brief rest is indicated. Make 
it a complete .one. Close your desk and go off to 
the seashore or spend the day hill-climbing. Go 
away from the office and forget your work. 

Although the character of a life insurance sales- 
man's work is exceptionally conducive to periods of 
depression, it affords unusual ground for a sanguine 
outlook. The field man like the actuary may be sure 
of his averages. After his first six months a sales- 
man can depend upon a certain aggregate produc- 
tion in the year as a result of a certain number of 
hours labor. He has the assurance that an addi- 
tional investment of time will yield proportional 
profits. Then again, he has the stimulating knowl- 
edge that whilst he is on the street and under the 
tree, so to speak, a plum may drop at his feet any 
moment. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE VIEWPOINT 

"'yOGBAUM works with a pencil, I do things 

* j with a pen ; but you sit up a conning tower 
bossing ten thousand men." Going home from a 
bridge party one Saturday night I read those lines 
of Kipling, and they suggested to me some new 
thoughts on our business. 

The amount of satisfaction and pride that one de- 
rives from his work depends upon the viewpoint. 
There is a touch of envy in Kipling's verses but 
it is not improbable that the admiral had often 
thought that it would be the finest thing in the 
world to be able to draw a picture like Zogbaum's 
or turn phrases like Kipling's. 

Can any sea-captain, artist, author, lawyer, physi- 
cian or minister point to a prouder achievement 
than the insurance agent whose register records one 
thousand policies? Think what that means, at 
least five thousand comparatively helpless beings 
protected against privation and suffering. We have 
no cause to envy the man who does things with a 
pen, with a scalpel, or in any other way. There is 
no nobler calling than ours. 

In the past half century Life Insurance has 
grown to enormous proportions in this country. It 
has increased thirty-fold in volume whilst our popu- 
lation has trebled. It has outstripped all financial 
and commercial institutions in efficiency of admin- 
istration and ethical standards of conduct. It has 
reached a condition and a stage where it is classed 

70 



THE VIEWPOINT 71 

as a profession and the men engaged in it are 
treated with the respect accorded to lawyers, en- 
gineers and others whose work necessitates a high 
order of intellect and education. 

Fathers engaged in professional and mercantile 
pursuits are today proud to have their sons take up 
Life Insurance salesmanship as a vocation and glad 
to afford them special educational preparation for 
it. It is the ideal young man's business. It affords 
scope for all the talents he may possess, for initia- 
tive, for originality and enthusiastic energy. It pre- 
sents greater opportunities for early success than 
any other line of endeavor. Its field for permanent 
occupation and constant advancement is unlimited. 

Tens of thousands have made temporary suc- 
cesses in our business and thousands have made 
life successes of it. Why has the proportion of 
the latter to the former been so small? Why has 
but one man gained a competency in Life Insur- 
ance to every ten men who have earned large 
incomes from its sale? 

Without doubt the explanation may be found in 
difference of viewpoint. The average Life Insur- 
ance agent looks upon the commission as the sole 
aim and end of his efforts. He holds the dollar so 
close to his eye that it shuts out the view of every- 
thing else. With that mental attitude he can't do 
anything worth while. No matter how much money 
he may earn, he cannot make any substantial suc- 
cess. 

Many bright men have enjoyed large incomes for 
years from selling Life Insurance. When these 
men have viewed their business merely as a means 
of money making they have failed to develop per- 
sonally with it. If one does not develop he must 
degenerate. Physical or mental stagnation is im- 
possible. You must go forward or backward. Con- 
sequently a time inevitably comes to such men when 



72 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

their ability begins to wane and their production 
takes a steadily decreasing course. Ultimately they 
reach the point at which they started — zero, or per- 
haps minus, for they seldom save anything. They 
become back numbers — "have beens," whose work 
has benefited themselves least of all. 

If a man's viewpoint regarding his business is 
right he will recognize its demand for the greatest 
degree of efficiency possible on his part. This he 
can obtain only by cultivation and development of 
his personal character and qualities. The more he 
improves these, the greater will become his business 
ability. There will be constant action and reaction. 
His business should operate as a stimulus toward 
personal improvement ; his personal improvement as 
a stimulus toward business efficiency. 

Your business is big enough and important 
enough to justify you in using every possible means 
to increase your fitness for it. Such means are 
much more than mere technical knowledge and 
skill. They embrace everything that will make you 
a better and a stronger man. 



CHAPTER XVI 
WASTE 

IT sometimes happens that an apparently- 
healthy person experiences a puzzling lack of 
vigor. He feels well, but falls short in strength 
and stamina of the standard indicated by his ap- 
pearance. On examination the physician finds 
some defect in the process of his digestion, circu- 
lation or secretion, entailing an unsuspected 
waste. So an earnest and industrious Life Insur- 
ance agent sometimes fails to secure the results 
that his efforts would seem to justify him in ex- 
pecting. Examination wil generally reveal defec- 
tive methods of which he is unconscious. The 
most common of these involve Waste of Time, 
Waste of Words and Waste of Energy. 

WASTE OF TIME 

Time is the raw material of our business. An 
appreciation of its value is the most important les- 
son that a Life Insurance salesman can learn. 

His occupation is one of peculiar freedom and in- 
dependence. His work is not laid out in clearly 
presented tasks, brought immediately to hand. He 
is his own employer — his own timekeeper. His 
hours of labor and degrees of effort are entirely 
under his command. For these reasons Life Insur- 
ance solicitors are particularly prone to be irregu- 
lar and wasteful in the disposition of their Time. 

This shortcoming is in large measure due to care- 
lessness. Many men waste time without realization 

73 



74 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

of the fact. It is safe to say that there is not one 
of us but would be astounded could an exact exhibit 
be placed before him of Time unconsciously wasted 
by him in the course of any week. 

Few men deliberately idle, and that phase of the 
question may be ignored. Let us restrict ourselves 
to consideration of some of the numerous ways in 
which we allow Time to slip by us without being 
turned to good account, or, worse still, kill it by 
misuse. 

We do not sufficiently guard against the induce- 
ments to waste Time that are created by others. 
The most insidious temptations of this kind are 
presented by acquaintances, fellow-agents and pros- 
pects who engage us in profitless conversations dur- 
ing business hours. The casual meeting, the fruit- 
less discussion, the aimless argument, consume more 
Time than we can afford to lose, not to mention the 
ill-effect of side-tracking our minds. 

Lack of system is one of the most prolific causes 
of loss of Time. The man whose activities are regu- 
lated from one end of the day to the other, usually 
makes the most of his Time. If you have no fixed 
hour for rising, retiring, reaching the office, taking 
your lunch, you must inevitably lose much Time 
through the derangement of plans and the necessary 
readjustment. 

Comparatively few persons regulate their hours 
of sleep by intelligent judgment or knowledge of 
actual requirement. It is a question to which little 
serious thought is given, and inclination is usually 
the deciding factor. 

For many years the writer sincerely believed that 
he needed eight hours of sleep nightly and that nine 
hours were good for him when he could secure 
them. Careful test has convinced him that seven 
hours sleep is the best allowance for him and that 
he can get along very well with six when necessary. 



WASTE OF TIME 75 

This discovery brought the humiliating disclosure 
that he had wasted two or three years as surely as 
though he had been dead for that time. It also 
brought the consolatory knowledge that he may add 
the equivalent of fifty working days, or two months, 
to every year in the future. 

It will be well worth while to consider this mat- 
ter in your own case. After a certain point sleep 
ceases to be energizing and becomes enervating. It 
may be that you are impairing health, as well as los- 
ing money, during the last hour you spend in bed of 
a morning. 

Have you ever calculated the Time you spend on 
street cars ? Do you turn it to any account, or is it 
sheer waste ? It should be devoted to definite men- 
tal occupation. The Time consumed in traveling 
from your home to the office may be profitably em- 
ployed in rehearsing a canvass, framing an argu- 
ment, or considering some one of the many matters 
of business concern which, ordinarily, do not re- 
ceive the thought they deserve. 

Most men are prone to spend too much thought 
and speech on non-essentials. Interviews are un- 
duly prolonged by needless discussion. Matters of 
no moment are permitted to intrude upon the mind 
and rob it of Time which should be devoted to mat- 
ters of consequence. 

These dissipations of Time are avoidable. The 
rest hour may be occupied by studying insurance 
literature or reading some book of the up-lift kind. 
Conversations, interviews and tasks may be regu- 
lated by a watchful thriftiness, instead of the usual 
liberal carelessness. All Time should be devoted to 
some definite purpose, even though it be diversion. 
Mental drifting is enervating and demoralizing. 
The practice of economy, if persisted in, will cul- 
minate in a confirmed habit which, for most of us, 



76 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

will result in saving many valuable hours in the 
course of a week. 

In short, Time has a money value to the business 
man and he should check his expenditure of it as 
he does that of his bank deposit. 

WASTE OF WORDS 

In the present age the most valuable art is that 
of the effective employment of words. Time was 
when our ancestors looked contemptuously upon 
speech and writing as accomplishments fit only for 
monks and scriveners. That was the Age of Brawn 
when a man worked his will with the aid of a club, 
and found in fear the most potent agency for per- 
suasion. This is the Age of Brain in which the 
master forces are of mental origin and words are 
the principal promoters of action. In this day an 
epigram may be more effective than an army corps. 

Our business is peculiarly dependent on speech. 
In almost all other lines of salesmanship something 
tangible is offered, making appeal to the sight and 
other senses. In ours success is secured solely by 
playing upon the imagination through the medium 
of the spoken word. 

In this and other respects our work resembles 
that of the preacher and the advocate. In these pro- 
fessions men take the utmost pains to cultivate the 
art of speaking and to rehearse for particular ef- 
forts. With rare exceptions, we neglect all such 
preparation. 

Few of us really appreciate the power of words 
properly applied. We never think of studying to 
make our speech more effective ; but deliberate ef- 
fort in this direction would add immeasurably to 
our success as salesmen. We may, by intelligent 
exercise, develop our powers of exposition, con- 
viction and persuasion; we may cultivate feeling, 
energy and imagination; we may learn the effec- 
tive use of pause, emphasis, and climax. 



WASTE OF WORDS 77 

A moderate degree of trouble devoted to acquir- 
ing a knowledge of word values and to improvement 
in expression will largely repay the salesman by in- 
creased efficiency. As it is, we talk at random. 
Often the spoken word fails to express our mean- 
ing, and, what is worse, it sometimes misrepresents 
the thought. When the conveyance of an idea is 
laborious there is something faulty in our mental 
process or verbal expression. 

This subject, which I have hardly touched upon, 
deserves more extended consideration, but at pres- 
ent the matter for discussion is the Waste of Words 
rather than the effective use of them. 

The commonest fault of the Life Insurance 
agent is talking too much. The root of this defect 
is to be found in failure to think enough. 

To my mind, the most remarkable feature of the 
great jury addresses of such masters as Russell, 
Choate, and Ballantyne is the adequacy without re- 
dundance of the presentation. What is the secret 
of this remarkable precision? Without doubt, it is 
thorough mental review. They had examined their 
subject from every angle, and especially from the 
view-point of their prospective hearers. They had 
a clear-cut conception of the thoughts which they 
wished to create in the minds of the jury and could 
calculate to a nicety the amount of verbal weight 
and stimulation necessary to set the desired men- 
tal process in operation. 

Able teachers, preachers, and writers do not aim 
to secure their efforts by exhaustive statement, but 
by suggestion. Similarly our object should not be 
to save thought on the part of our prospect, but 
to encourage it. By telling the Whole story with 
attenuated detail we produce the effect of the 
nurse's fairy tale on the little boy in the crib. He 
attends with keen interest, which is evidenced by an 
occasional question. Then he falls into the easier 



78 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

mental attitude of passive receptivity, and present- 
ly he is asleep. 

This fault of exhaustive presentation is generally 
aggravated by over elaboration, which wearies if it 
does not irritate an intelligent man. 

On a certain occasion Mark Twain heard a ser- 
mon on foreign missions. In the first fifteen min- 
utes the minister made a masterful plea. Twain 
was greatly moved and decided to donate a hundred 
dollars to the cause. But, as the preacher continued 
with a flood of words which added nothing to the 
force of his original statement, the humorist's fire 
of enthusiasm was gradually quenched. It had been 
reduced to a feeble flicker by the time the offertory 
plate was passed, and Twain dropped into it four 
bits. 

Our endeavor should be to produce the desired 
impression in as few words as need be, and with 
the aid of suggestion. We can find no better ex- 
amples of the economical and effective use of words 
than the magazine advertisements afford. The Life 
Insurance solicitor may gain the most valuable hints 
from a study of them. 

Excessive verbiage is nearly always accompanied 
by the too rapid expression of ideas. We transfer 
an unaccustomed thought to our prospect's mind 
and before he has had time to assimilate it, project 
another upon his mental retina with the inevitable 
result of confusion. 

You are familiar with the effect of casting a stone 
into a still pond. It creates a series of regular and 
concentric movements which gradually cease. But 
if, before these have subsided, you throw in an- 
other stone, the character of the former activity is 
changed and the combined result is a number of ir- 
regular and eccentric movements. A third stone 
will increase the confusion, and a fourth will create 
a veritable chaos of ripples. 



WASTE OF ENERGY 79 

Now, we frequently stand off and pitch stones 
into our prospect's mind until his think tank 
splashes over. 

Whilst repetition may be made to serve our pur- 
pose, it is too often practised detrimentally. A 
telling point may be repeated with variation of ex- 
pression three or four times in a canvass and have 
the effect of strengthening an impression. But 
mere repetition of a statement which has just been 
made is a Waste of Words, or worse, for it is apt 
to make a mental blur which may be likened to two 
or more exposures of a photographic plate. 

WASTE OF ENERGY 

Energy is force in suspension or in operation. 
It must exist in the former state before it can be 
manifested in the latter. It cannot be suddenly 
created by an effort of will. That effort simply re- 
leases Energy. It does not originate it. 

The definition is important, because a great 
deal of the Waste of Energy is due to ignorance 
of its true character. 

The human system is, in some sort, an elec- 
trical storage battery. It is charged with Energy 
by means of food, air and rest. The process is simi- 
lar to that of generating mechanical Energy by the 
consumption of fuel and the production of steam. 

Storing of Energy is the essential, vital prin- 
ciple. An excess supply is maintained over the 
amount called for in ordinary daily activity. 
Waste is avoided by regulating expenditure to 
necessity. 

Confidence comes from consciousness of 
Energy in reserve. It gives a sense of prepared- 
ness for emergency. The capacity of an indi- 
vidual is measurable by his reserve of Energy — 
by his ability to meet extraordinary demands 
upon his strength and intellect. 

Except in cases of nerve exhaustion, a consid- 



80 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

erable degree of excess Energy is always present. 
And it is highly necessary that it should be. To 
take a simple illustration : Suppose that you are 
crossing the street when an automobile horn sud- 
denly blares behind you and its vibrations set 
your spine atingle. On the instant, you leap 
aside with Energy far in excess of that required 
by your former activity of leisurely walking. If, 
however, you had been in such a state of fatigue 
as to be incapable of greater exertion than that of 
walking, you could not have made the extraordi- 
nary effort suddenly demanded by the emer- 
gency. 

The conservation of reserve Energy is of the 
utmost importance. Every exercise of force in 
excess of requirement entails a waste, the conse- 
quences of which may be much more serious than 
would be readily imagined. The failure of many 
a business negotiation is attributable to some 
careless and unnecessary dissipation of Energy. 

Energy is psychical as well as physical in its 
nature. The thousand and one ways in which it 
is wasted will fall within the following classifi- 
cation : 

1. Useless physical activities. 

2. Excessive and unnecessary mental activi- 
ties. 

3. Wrong and uncontrolled emotional expres- 
sion. 

No leaks in our storage battery are to be 
ignored as inconsequential. Waste of Energy is 
involved in the slightest unnecessary physical 
movements, such as drumming with the fingers or 
tapping with the feet. So with trivial mental or 
emotional activities, such as day dreaming, or 
irritation. 

Now, let us consider some of the matters di- 



WASTE OF ENERGY 81 

rectly connected with our business which entail 
Waste of Energy. 

The commonest physical form of Waste En- 
ergy is found in work without preparatory plan 
and forethought. Too many agents imagine that 
a liberal consumption of shoe leather is the sole 
requisite of success. 

Did you ever see a fire-hose in action without 
a man at the nozzle? It threshes around like a 
thing possessed, squirting water here, there, and 
everywhere but on the right spot. It is a striking 
illustration of undirected Energy. 

The man who enters upon his day's work with- 
out premeditation and hurries from point to point 
without prearrangement is the most reckless 
spendthrift in this respect. He is constantly 
wasting Energy which should be held in reserve 
for purposeful occasions. 

Inefficiency invariably involves Waste of En- 
ergy. This is the underlying truth in the old 
adage: "Haste makes Waste." Every task 
poorly performed— -every improper method em- 
ployed — represents a certain amount of misap- 
plied effort. In the various stages of an insur- 
ance negotiation, serious losses of Energy are in- 
curred through lack of thoroughness. We all 
know what is meant by "selling a policy twice." 

In our intercourse with prospects we are reck- 
lessly prodigal in the expenditure of Energy. In- 
stead of jealously hoarding it for use on vital 
issues and critical occasions, we lavishly devote 
it to non-essentials and matters of secondary mo- 
ment. The thermal Energy expended in a heated 
argument may deprive us, by just that much, of 
the force needed to close a case. 

Insurance agents are too prone to Waste 
Energy in contention. We seem to view our 
business as a sort of Donnybrook Fair perform- 



82 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

ance. We go about with a perpetual chip on our 
shoulder. The prospect casually mentions an- 
other company and we immediately plunge into 
a discussion which uselessly consumes Energy, 
and, likely enough, creates competition where it 
did not previously exist. 

We must cultivate the sense of values and pro- 
portion. We must learn when to open the flood- 
gates of force, and when to dam the flow. 

By fostering the Mood of Energy and main- 
taining it as a fixed habit we may ward off those 
mental states that make for Waste of Force. 
Worry, anger, and other wrong feelings and emo- 
tions are veritable vampires in their effect of sap- 
ping the sources of Energy. They set up a chem- 
ical action in the system which produces physical 
poisoning. When the ancients spoke of the 
"jaundice of jealousy," and associated bile with 
hatred, they displayed an intimate knowledge of 
the physiological effects of those emotions. 

I have touched on but few of the numerous 
ways in which we waste Energy, my object being 
to stimulate your thought. As a matter of fact, 
these faults and those noticed in our discussions 
of Waste of Words and Waste of Time are, in 
the final analysis, due to want of reflection. It is 
not to be supposed that we would continue faulty 
methods and wasteful practices if we realized 
them. 

The truth of the matter is, that we do not 
think enough. The ability exists, and I do not 
doubt the willingness, but the habit is lacking. 
Let us apply more brain power to our work and 
to everything related to it, or which may be made 
effective in the promotion of it. 



CHAPTER XVII 
SENTIMENT IN BUSINESS 

SENTIMENT, I take it, is feeling in contra- 
diction to reason. It is the product of the 
heart rather than of the brain. As such, senti- 
ment is a greater factor in business affairs than 
we generally realize. The largest financial and 
commercial transactions frequently involve a 
strong element of sentiment. The famous railroad 
fight between Jim Fisk and Jay Gould was main- 
tained, for the sake of sentiment, long after good 
judgment dictated its termination. Andrew Car- 
negie has the reputation of being a particularly 
hard headed man of business. Nevertheless, there 
are several notable instances of his having been 
swayed by sentiment in important affairs. 

One of the highest authorities on psychology has 
said that most persons never in their lives are 
actuated by pure reason, but that they are influ- 
enced by desire, imitation, intuition, association of 
ideas, various sentiments and almost everything but 
logical considerations. It is doubtful, in fact, 
whether sentiment can be entirely divorced from 
any mental action for, in the last analysis, a man al- 
ways does what he wishes to do, even though the 
desire to act in a certain way has been created by a 
process of reasoning. 

It is of the utmost importance that we should 
recognize the fact that a substratum, at least, of 
sentiment exists in every business transaction, be- 
cause this underlying element will often afford us 

83 



84 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

the most effective medium for gaining our ends. 
It is quite safe to say that Life Insurance was never 
sold without sentiment as one of the motives for 
purchase. In the extreme case of a man taking a 
policy to protect his creditors, the sense or senti- 
ment of duty is present. 

There are only two directions in which we, as 
salesmen, can make our appeal — those of reason and 
sentiment ; there are only two methods by which we 
can make it — those of argument and suggestion. 
The appeal to reason by argument is more difficult 
and less effective than the appeal to sentiment by 
suggestion. 

Argument, pure and simple will rarely close a 
case. You may convince a man that he ought to take 
life insurance and at the same time be quite unable 
to induce him to do so. You must make him wish 
to do so and in most instances this can be accom- 
plished by stimulating a sentimental motive. 

In resorting to the appeal to sentiment you are 
treading upon thin ice. The exercise of watchful 
tact is necessary in order to avoid blundering. In 
canvassing a day laborer it may be well enough to 
draw a picture of his widow over the washtub but a 
business man would be likely, and justly so, to re- 
sent a similar allusion. 

The safest and most effectual method is to avoid 
bald statement and employ the more subtle agency 
of suggestion. One has the penetrating and diffusive 
qualities of a fluid in contrast with a solid. A man 
closes the door of his mind against assertion, and 
suggestion trickles through the crevise and spreads 
all over the mental chamber. 

In dealing with a stranger you are at the disad- 
vantage of knowing little or nothing about his pri- 
vate affairs. It is dangerous to assume much, es- 
pecially when you are on the delicate ground of 
sentiment. In such a situation use suggestion to 



SENTIMENT IN BUSINESS 85 

start his mind working in the desired direction. He 
will apply your arguments to conditions, plans and 
prospects of which you have no suspicion. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
POINTED POLICY PRESENTATION 

A CERTAIN Philadelphia merchant contem- 
plated the purchase of a limousine. He had 
an invalid daughter who was the subject of his 
constant care and consideration. This fact was 
doubtless known by each of the four salesmen 
who sought his order, but one only of them took 
advantage of it. He confined his presentation to 
one point — comfort. He dwelt on the shock ab- 
sorber, the luxurious upholstering, the easy lines 
of the body. His competitors expatiated on a 
score or more of superior features in their re- 
spective machines. 

The prospective purchaser received general im- 
pressions respecting three propositions. With regard 
to the other, he had one clear-cut, definite idea. 
It is hardly necessary to say that the shrewd sales- 
man who had employed suggestion to stimulate a 
strong motive secured the sale. 

The principle illustrated in this incident beds at 
the root of success in selling life insurance. The 
efficient canvass is impossible to the man who has not 
a full understanding of this principle. He may be 
forceful, persuasive, and even successful in writing 
business, but he cannot gain adequate results from 
his efforts without the application of the principle 
of the concentrated appeal. 

The most essential factor in a sale is desire. In 
order to desire a thing one must have a conception 

86 



POINTED POLICY PRESENTATION 87 

of it, and the clearer the conception the stronger will 
be the desire. 

It follows that the primary object of the sales- 
man should be to create a clear conception of his 
proposition. This necessitates a clear idea of it in 
his own mind, and the statement of that idea briefly 
and simply. Clarity and simplicity are twin sis- 
ters, — their names are almost synonyms. 

The impressiveness of Niagara is due to the 
unity of the effect. There is nothing to divide the 
attention with that immense downfalling mass of 
water. On the other hand, the beauties of the 
Grand Canyon are not fully perceived in the rich 
confusion of a general view and can only be ap- 
preciated by detaching certain portions and con- 
centrating attention upon them. 

The typical life insurance solicitor falls into the 
error of thinking that he may best arouse desire by 
offering quantity as an incentive. His presentation 
of a policy consists of a rapid recital of practically 
all the benefits to be derived from it. The result is 
a dim and confused conception on the part of the 
prospect, involving conflicting ideas, as when he is 
prompted to consider at the same time the surrender 
and the maturity of a policy. 

Such a presentation may create some sort of 
weak desire, but it lacks dynamic force because of 
the absence of impelling motive. The inducement 
is too diffuse and spread too thinly. It usually 
elicits the "I-will-think-it-over" decision which is 
too often justified by the fact that the interview has 
precluded coherent thought. 

There is one predominant feature in every insur- 
ance contract — protection or investment — and it 
should be made the key-note of the canvass and the 
focal point of the argument. Everything else is 
more or less of a side issue. In a Monthly Income 
proposition, for instance, the certainty and com- 



88 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

pleteness of the protection is the essence of the 
offer. It will be accepted only because that is the 
chief, if not the sole, consideration. The most ef- 
fective canvasses of this policy are made without 
mention of any other benefit, on the principle of 
avoiding distraction of the prospect's mind and 
concentrating the appeal. 

Every life insurance contract affords the agent a 
number of attractive features to advance and con- 
sequently the danger of a diffusive presentation is 
peculiarly great. Whether this cornucopia of bene- 
fits is an advantage or a handicap will depend en- 
tirely upon the method of presentation. 

The judicious salesman cannot have too many 
"strings to his bow." He should be familiar with 
all of them. The preparation for a canvass should 
include an inventory of those available in the case 
under consideration. But they should be used with 
system and judgment. 

Most of us will remember the fakir at the old- 
time county fair who used to open proceedings by 
asking a quarter for a cheap colored handkerchief. 
After dilating in flowery language on the beauty 
and utility of the article, he would add to it a pair 
of gilt cuff buttons backed up by a similar eloquent 
appeal. The offer would then be strengthened by 
a pinchbeck broach with the appropriate patter. 
When the collection included four or five articles a 
purchaser would come forward. 

Now this was not diffusive salesmanship. It was 
not the birdshot method, but the magazine rifle 
method of appeal. Unconsciously the man em- 
ployed the scientific principle of cumulative effect. 
He made each article play its part and create its 
full influence before bringing another to its support. 
Had he presented all the things included in his 
offer at once or in rapid succession, he would not 
have made the sale. 



POINTED POLICY PRESENTATION 89 

Here is the clue to the effective method of pre- 
senting a policy. Let the agent state his main prop- 
osition as clearly as possible and drive it home with 
all the argument at his command. If need be, let 
him reinforce his appeal with another inducement 
in the form of total disability, or accident indem- 
ity presented with equal thoroughness. He will thus 
convey a succession of definite ideas to the mind 
of his prospect and advance by definite steps to the 
closing point. 

Policy illustrations are responsible for many ob- 
jectionable developments of our business, not the 
least among them being the general prominence of 
non-forfeiture features in the canvass. The agent 
may strengthen his policy presentation by eliminat- 
ing all reference to them. He cannot introduce the 
thought of lapse or surrender without detriment to 
his purpose. His endeavor should be to amplify 
the idea of benefits and avoid allusion to misfor- 
tunes. The prospect may broach the subject, in 
which case it can usually be disposed of in a general, 
rather than a specific, manner. Some such state- 
ment as the following is recommended: "A con- 
siderable proportion of your deposits is placed to 
the permanent credit of your policy, accumulated 
at interest, and held in reserve to meet your future 
needs in a variety of ways," 



CHAPTER XIX 
LUCK 

IF luck is inordinate chance — if it is entirely in- 
dependent of design or intelligent influence, — 
how shall we account for its falling again and again 
upon one person with evil consequences and as 
regularly upon another with good results? This is 
contrary to the very essence of chance and con- 
sistent with the action of order. It should make 
us doubt whether what we call luck is quite as 
casual as it is generally supposed to be. 

For years I have found it interesting and in- 
structive to investigate striking cases of "luck" 
occurring in history and common life. In the 
final analysis it has always been evident that 
the apparently casual good or bad fortune was 
due to some rational cause over which the sub- 
ject of the luck had control, and that the cause 
in question was essential to the consummation. 
So invariable is this condition as to justify the 
conclusion that luck is governed by law and is 
the logical outcome of cause and effect. 

It is clear that the misconception of luck is due 
to a confusion of ideas in which the element of 
chance is treated as the effective factor, whereas 
it is in truth merely the outlet for the operation 
of the latter. It is as though one should attrib- 
ute the force expended by a cartridge to the per- 
cussion cap rather than to the charge of powder. 
The force is inherent in the explosive, awaiting 
release through the medium of the cap. This 

90 



LUCK 91 

condition exactly parallels that which exists in 
many cases of so-called luck. 

I believe that in every case of good or bad luck 
investigation will reveal causes lying behind the 
chance that is generally accepted as the control- 
ling factor, — causes, moreover, for which the sub- 
ject of luck was responsible. It is probably to a 
realization of this truth that we owe the use of 
the word chance as a synonym for opportunity, 
as when we say: "Be hopefully patient. Your 
chance will come some day." 

Now and again we are moved to wonder by 
the good fortune which suddenly, and without 
apparent reason, befalls some person, raising him 
from obscurity to prominence, or from pov- 
erty to wealth. In all such instances investiga- 
tion would show that by specific preparation in 
work and study, or by cultivation of character 
and faculties, the beneficiary had qualified him- 
self to take advantage of the opportunity unex- 
pectedly presented by chance. 

On the re-organization of one of our largest 
railroads, the new president secured the election 
to the vice-presidency of a young man who had 
been stenographer to the former head of the line. 
The choice was made because during the twelve 
years that this young man had been occupied 
in clerical work he had learned all he could per- 
taining to railroading. He had studied railroad en- 
gineering, railroad finance, railroad advertising, rail- 
road transportation and the rest. His vacations 
had been spent in traveling over the line, becoming 
familiar with it and its tributary territory. When 
his income jumped from $150 a month to $15,000 a 
year the public dubbed him "lucky" and his asso- 
ciates hinted at favoritism, but executives don't play 
favorites when their own success is dependent on 
the efficiency of their assistants. 



92 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

A man can adopt no surer way of courting 
promotion than that of performing his present 
work, no matter how humble, as well as he pos- 
sibly can. When general after general had con- 
spicuously failed to solve the Egyptian problem, 
a council was held at the British War Office to 
decide upon a new commander. The Duke of 
Cambridge, then Commander-in-Chief, suggested 
Major Kitchener, whose name was hardly known 
to any of the others present. He had never done 
anything of great importance, — he had never had 
anything of great importance to do, — but the 
records showed, and his various commanding 
officers attested, that every task ever entrusted 
to Kitchener had been thoroughly performed. 
No one could say whether the young officer was 
equal to the biggest thing the British Empire 
had on hand, but, as a sporting member remarked 
in the House : "When a jockey has carried your 
money safely every time in the past, he looks 
like a safe bet for a future event." Kitchener re- 
ceived the appointment over the heads of scores 
of men who called him a "lucky dog." 

A member of the Russian royal family suffered 
severe and complicated injuries of a peculiar 
character in a railroad accident which occurred 
at a remote part of the country. The officers c I 
the archduke's staff bemoaned the fact that no 
better aid was available than that of a supposedly 
unskilled country practitioner. But it happened 
that this surgeon had enjoyed extensive experi- 
ence in dealing with mining accidents and for 
fourteen years he made a deep study of improved 
treatment. His solitariness had developed re- 
sourcefulness and originality. When the court 
physicians arrived a few days later they found 
a case that amazed them by the novelty of the 
operation and the rapidity of recovery. Within 



LUCK 93 

a year the erstwhile village surgeon was at the 
head of his profession in the capital and,- whilst 
his skill was admitted to be wonderful, his luck 
was pronounced phenomenal. 

There is no such thing as luck in the sense of 
pure chance. Don't believe in it, and above all 
don't depend upon it. Dame Fortune, like a sen- 
sible old lady, is most apt to visit those best pre- 
pared to entertain her, but she doesn't knock at 
doors without having made some previous en- 
quiry about the inmates. 

On the other hand, chance, in the sense of op- 
portunity, is something to be always alertly look- 
ing for. Your chance, however, can only be yours 
because you have qualified yourself to take it. 
What avails it to you that a niche be vacated, if 
you cannot fit it? 

You can command good luck if you will. To 
do so needs that you perform your present work 
to the very best of your ability, putting into it 
not merely all that it calls for, but all that you 
possess of energy and inspiration. Any work 
may be treated in this manner, though it be no 
more important than that of sweeping an office. 
Meanwhile, persistently practice the improvement 
of character and faculties. Acquire knowledge 
beyond that required by your immediate duties. 
Understudy some man higher up. If you never 
fill his place you will have grown by the ability 
to do so. When Nadir Shah was being carried 
from the field at a critical stage of a battle, he 
said: "Leave it to Gadu Khan," who was by no 
means the ranking officer. Train yourself so that 
when some superior is abandoning an important 
position he will say: "Leave it to Jack Robinson," 
or whatever your name may be. 



CHAPTER XX 
AFTER HOURS 

BY "after hours" is meant the time following 
the business day ; in short, leisure. This 
word is derived from the French loisir, to allow. 
In the feudal days leisure time was that allowed 
to the serf or slave to do with as he wished. It 
was his period of freedom — a portion of the day 
marked and distinct from the remainder. It was 
a time of license — to employ a word which is first 
cousin to leisure — a time when control and re- 
sponsibility were abated. 

This idea has come down to modern times almost 
without question. Only in recent years have radical 
modifications of it received acceptance. The last 
generation of business men and employes looked 
upon the work-day as a distinctly separate part of 
their life, not related to "after hours" by any com- 
mon interests. The demands and requirements of 
the former were jealously excluded from the latter. 
The firm or employer had a right to a certain 
amount of service which was measured with the 
precision of a grocer selling eggs or butter. 

After hours belonged exclusively to the private 
individual. What he did with them was no con- 
cern of any one but himself. He did not recognize 
any connection between his leisure and his labor, 
much less any obligation upon the one growing out 
of the other. 

Latter-day developments have brought about an 
entirely new view of this matter. Higher standards 

94 



AFTER HOURS 95 

of business ethics have been set up. Competition, 
with its demand upon efficiency, has wrought great 
changes. Reason and logic have made their appeal 
felt. The bank president would not allow his coach- 
man the free use of the horses when not employed 
in the family service. Why should he permit his 
cashier to impair in after hours the health and 
energy which are necessary to the efficient perform- 
ance of his duties? The corporation and manager 
of today justly claim the right of control over the 
leisure of the men to whom they pay salaries, at 
least to the extent of prohibiting habits and indul- 
gencies calculated to reduce their business capacity. 

But the most effective factor in this reformation, 
as in all human developments, has been self-inter- 
est. Men have been awakened to the opportunities 
latent in leisure by the shining examples of such 
successes as those achieved by Stephen Girard, 
Abraham Lincoln, Alva Edison, Andrew Carnegie 
and James J. Hill, through turning the after hours 
to account. It came to be realized that life as a 
comprehensive whole cannot be divided into dis- 
jointed units — that every action has its reaction ; 
that every thought has its sequel ; that every hour 
has its influence upon every later hour. It became 
apparent, in fact, that a man's leisure affects his 
character, and may be made to affect his capacity- 
more than his daily labor does. 

It is such a simple and obvious proposition this, 
that the only wonder is its ever having needed dem- 
onstration. You must see that every minute is in- 
terwoven with every other in the fabric of your life, 
so that a missing thread here or a rotten one there, 
weakens the entire piece, lessens its utility and re- 
duces its value. You can readily understand how 
a bad night's rest or an attack of indigestion will 
impair your working capacity for a day or longer. 
Perhaps you may not as easily trace the effect of a 



96 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

fit of idleness or an evening spent in questionable 
amusement. Nevertheless, the results are inevitable ; 
nor do they cease with the immediate and manifest 
consequence. 

Have you ever attempted to trace the effects of 
some seemingly trivial cause ? Make a trial of it in 
the next spare half hour. You will never follow it 
to a conclusion because it runs through all eternity. 
But you may carry the connection through such a 
ramification of incidents as to amaze you. When 
Adam plucked that allegorical apple he set in motion 
a train of forces which have the closest bearing 
upon your life today. 

Now, what is the practical application of this 
question to us as salesmen? It applies to us with 
greater force than to any other class of business 
men. 

In the first place, our success is peculiarly de- 
pendent upon fitness — upon physical vigor and men- 
tal alertness. The bookkeeper, and even the physi- 
cian or merchant, may get through his day's work 
in passable fashion under the stress of physical fa- 
tigue and mental debility. Not so the life insurance 
agent. In such a condition he cannot accomplish 
anything worth while and, moreover, an attempt is 
likely to result in spoiling good material. 

In the second place, we are our own employers. 
We are not subject to control nor coercion. If we 
fail to maintain discipline with ourselves there is 
no other source from which it can be exerted. 

In the third place, self-interest should operate 
more strongly with us than with the salaried em- 
ploye. He has less incentive than we. The scope of 
our efforts is unlimited and we enjoy the full fruits 
of our labor. 

Under the circumstances, it is clearly the height 
of folly to allow our conduct in after hours to reflect 
injuriously upon our work-day. But this is only a 
negative aspect of the question. The same consider- 



AFTER HOURS 97 

ation of self-interest should prompt positive action. 
It is not enough to eschew harmful habits. • We 
must cultivate others of a beneficial character. We 
must aim at general self-improvement, and in doing 
so we cannot fail to effect increase of business ef- 
ficiency. 

The work-day of an industrious life insurance 
agent involves strain upon nerves and physical 
powers. His after hours should afford relief to 
both. The point is to so regulate them, that, with- 
out sacrifice of relaxation and pleasure, the chosen 
occupations shall contribute to mental development, 
acquisition of knowledge, and character building. 

It is safe to say that few of us direct any intelli- 
gent thought to this matter. The disposition of lei- 
sure hours is largely left to accident, impulse or 
outside influence. We never think of this most val- 
uable portion of our time as a source of profit. We 
don't consider it worth while to keep account of it. 

The solution of this vital problem must be left to 
the individual. Whilst the principle has a universal 
application, the factors and conditions will not be 
alike in any two cases. At best I can do no more 
than offer a few simple suggestions. 

I am convinced that no man can make continuous 
improvement in business efficiency without devoting 
some thought to his work outside of his active 
hours. The agent whose ideas and knowledge are 
derived exclusively from experience resembles the 
man who bolts his food without mastication. The 
mind of such an agent is filled with half-conceived 
principles, faulty theories, and incomplete facts. 
With hard work he will make a fairly creditable 
showing under ordinary conditions, but he is bound 
to fail in situations that demand sound knowledge 
and ability. 

The life insurance agent who is pursuing his busi- 
ness seriously with the intention of making it his 
life's vocation should be willing to set aside one 



98 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

hour of his leisure daily to the purpose of profes- 
sional improvement. Indeed, if he has the right 
attitude toward his work the hour should be one 
of the most pleasant of his day. It will afford him 
opportunity for reading technical journals and 
books dealing with different phases of salesman- 
ship; reflecting on various problems of his busi- 
ness; reviewing his work, and planning for the 
future. 

For the rest, it is easily possible to so order our 
recreation that we shall derive both pleasure and 
profit from it. It is the broad, scholarly thoughtful 
man who makes the greatest success in our busi- 
ness. Every one of the most prominent producers 
in this country is well informed on several subjects 
besides life insurance. And there is no doubt that 
each of them has found the time expended on what 
we may call "side studies" a profitable investment 
from the monetary point of view. The gain is less 
in the matter of knowledge than in that of mental 
development. 

The whole field of knowledge is open to you, and 
you may make excursions into the realm of discov- 
ery if you choose. It is not necessary to resort to 
literature. Let it be taxidermy or tombstones ; bot- 
any or beetles; cryptograms or caricatures. The 
subject is of secondary importance. The main thing 
is to acquire an accurate knowledge of it. This, as 
Arnold Bennett says, "coupled with a carefully nur- 
tured sense of the relativity of that subject to other 
subjects, implies an enormous self -development." 

In conclusion, let me warn you that any plan 
which you may make for self -improvement on the 
lines that have been suggested will depend for its 
success upon the seriousness of your purpose and 
the persistency with which you pursue it. Do not 
embark upon the enterprise without mature thought. 
And having decided to devote some of your leisure 
to a definitely useful occupation, set aside certain 



AFTER HOURS 99 

times for the purpose and adhere to your program 
with regularity. 

The provident employment of your after hours 
will increase the productiveness of your working 
hours. 



r 



CHAPTER XXI 

TELLING TALK* 

X 

THE common formula for success is ex- 
pressed in a single word — WORK. We are 
told that if we will work hard enough we may 
accomplish anything. The idea appears to be 
that extent of achievement depends solely upon 
the degree of labor directed toward it. 

This proposition is so wide of the truth that 
it will not apply to even the simple task of ditch 
digging. You may strive like a Titan without 
doing anything out of the ordinary. Thousands 
of men are sweating blood in the hopeless effort 
to make bricks without straw. The crucial factor 
in any endeavor is not the amount but the quality 
of the work devoted to it. 

Speech is the medium through which the sales- 
man transacts his business. In most instances 
there is an auxiliary factor in the form of some 
material exhibition or demonstration. Automo- 
biles, cash registers, office devices and household 
appliances afford opportunities for enhancing in- 
terest by means of the senses of sight and touch. 
The life insurance agent enjoys no such aids. 
He must make a direct impression upon the mind 
by an appeal to imagination. He must rely al- 
most entirely upon verbal presentation to secure 
his end. 

The practical work of the life insurance agent 
consists mainly of talk. Now, no one will COn- 
^eprinted by permission of the "Life Insurance Independent." 
100 



TELLING TALK 101 

tend that the more he talks the more effective 
will be his work. In fact, we all know that the 
converse of this statement is nearer to the truth. 
One of our chief faults is talking too much. What 
we need is to talk less, but to talk better, — to re- 
duce the quantity and improve the quality of 
our talk. 

The great majority of life insurance canvasses 
are weak and defective because the presentations 
are unscientific and unsystematic. That is to 
say, they are not based on any definite principles 
nor any preconceived plan. The agent enters 
upon an interview without intelligent forethought 
and depends on the exigencies of the occasion to 
control the conduct of the canvass. Under such 
conditions it is not strange that his talk lacks 
force and directness ; that much of it is inconse- 
quential and not a little actually detrimental to 
his purpose. 

At the outset let me impress upon you the 
fundamental truth that methods you employ in 
your business to be successful, must be natural. 
The processes you practice in a canvass should 
be the outgrowth of your habitual mental atti- 
tude. You cannot be slack in a certain respect 
during one-half of the day and efficient in the 
same respect during the other half. If your talk 
is to be telling in your work, it must be telling 
in your leisure. ■ 

You can only acquire the faculty of talking 
business effectively by forming a habit of always 
talking effectively. The observance of a few 
simple rules will insure the desired result. 

Don't talk merely for the sake of making con- 
versation. 

Never make frivolous and aimless remarks,* 

Invariably put thought behind your words. 

Be interested in your subject. If you can not, 
discussion is futile. 



102 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

Take pains to say exactly what you mean. 
Cultivate clarity of thought and terseness of 
speech. 

No matter how unimportant the occasion, nor 
how trivial the subject, strive to convince or in- 
fluence your hearers by your statements. 

These rules may all be summed up in the one 
sentence: Be frank, enthusiastic and earnest in 
thought and speech. 

Never lose sight of the influence of person- 
ality. Your self will either enhance the effect of 
your talk or detract from it. In order to be your- 
self you must be natural. Your words must have 
the ring of sincerity and conviction. 

The first step in making talk effective is a 
realization of the fact that it is no more than the 
vehicle for carrying ideas. A musical voice and 
well-turned phrases are of no account except as 
means of conveying thoughts. A clear-cut con- 
ception of the idea which you wish to impress 
on your prospect, constantly kept before your 
mind, will produce pointed and telling talk. The 
essential thing is a definite, well-formed idea. If 
you have that the verbal expression may be left 
to take care of itself. Obscure statement is the 
result of mental mistiness. 

I have said that, if you have a clearly defined 
idea of your proposition, the verbal expression 
may be left to take care of itself. I meant to in- 
timate that under such a condition you will have 
no difficulty about making yourself understood. 
For all that, the value of forceful phraseology, 
discriminate diction and pleasing delivery is not 
to be overlooked. These qualities of speech may 
be acquired and are well worth cultivation by the 
life insurance salesman. 

In talking business you should have at every 
moment a clearly defined purpose before your 
mind. The ultimate object of a canvass is to se- 



TELLING TALK 103 

cure an application, but it is to be reached only 
through several intermediate stages, each involv- 
ing a separate and distinct object. Too often the 
agent has only one clearly defined idea — that of 
closing his prospect. His thought is obscure as 
to the successive steps leading to that end. As a 
consequence he plods toward his goal in a disor- 
derly and haphazard fashion. His progress may 
be likened to that of a man who crosses a stretch 
of country by compass as compared with that of 
another who travels under the guidance of a road 
map. 

It frequently happens that a man declines the 
offer of one salesman and accepts a similar offer 
from another. The reasons for this are various 
and may be found in the personality of the sales- 
man or the temporary mood of the prospect, but 
in most cases the success is due to superior pre- 
sentation — to telling talk. One agent may pre- 
sent a policy without as much as exciting atten- 
tion, whilst another will present the same policy 
in such a way as to arouse the keenest interest. 
Why? Because one has but a hazy idea of his 
proposition and his purpose, and consequently ex- 
presses himself vaguely and indirectly, whilst 
the mind of the other is perfectly clear as to what 
he has to offer and as to the way in which he 
will create desire for it. 

This condition of mental preparedness can only 
be secured by planning and rehearsing inter- 
views. The telling talk of the minister, the 
lawyer, the promoter or the salesman has been 
thought out and gone over time and again. Such 
preparation should not be confined to specific 
cases. It is the best possible practice for 
strengthening the canvass in general. This is 
peculiarly true of our work. Our propositions 
are constant and the objections of our prospects 
so much alike that we can, if we will take the 



104 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

trouble, train ourselves to make a perfect presen- 
tation, and to meet almost any development 
which may arise in the course of a canvass. 

There is nothing difficult or complex about 
this preparation. The first step in the process 
is a systematic arrangement of your policy pre- 
sentation ; the next, classification of the argu- 
ments pro and con. In a short while you will 
find yourself in possession of standard presenta- 
tions and standard arguments. Thereafter it will 
be necessary only to modify these standards to 
conform to cases in which you have particular 
information regarding your prospects. It will 
not do, however, to allow your talk to become 
stereotyped. Your policy presentations and argu- 
ments should be kept fresh by constant improve- 
ment. Thought should be devoted to new argu- 
ments, pointed phrases, striking illustrations and 
other means of making your talk more telling. 

2 
IDEAS,— NOT MERE WORDS 

A peculiarity of our business is that we are 
presenting much the same proposition hour by 
hour and day after day. This has its advantages 
and also its drawbacks. The ambitious and 
painstaking salesman will, in his persistent effort 
to improve his canvass, constantly change it. 
The careless and slothful agent, on the other 
hand, will sink into a mental rut and express 
himself in well-worn stereotype terms. His talk 
will be well-nigh mechanical and entirely devoid 
of the freshness and spontaneity that grip a 
hearer and stimulate his thought. 

The latter class of solicitors constitute the 
majority. The vapid approach and colorless can- 
vass are the rule. To the potential prospect they 
suggest an echo of what he heard yesterday or, 
perhaps, only an hour before. Is it strange that 



TELLING TALK 105 

his sole desire is to stop the stream of prosaic 
piffle and return to his work? The wonder is 
that he exercises so much toleration and civility 
in the process. 

This is not an exaggerated statement of the 
case. Just think for a minute! Recall some of 
your interviews, and honesty will compel you to 
admit that this criticism applies to a large pro- 
portion of them. It must be so when you so 
frequently make an approach without a moment's 
previous thought as to what you are going to say. 

In the natural order of things, the outcome is a 
flow — or it may be a halting delivery — of mere 
words. Now, a business man has no use for talk 
per se. Ideas are what he is looking for all the 
time. His mind is trained to be on the alert for 
them and to pay attention to them. Present a 
new idea to him, and, although it may have no 
apparent relation to his affairs, it is highly prob- 
able that you will awaken his curiosity and in- 
terest. 

There you have the first essential in telling 
talk. It must convey new ideas, or old ones in 
novel form. 

In a technical business, such as ours, it is com- 
paratively easy to make our talk bristle with 
ideas that will have the appearance of originality 
to the uninitiated. But in order to produce the 
effect we must take the pains to think about the 
details of our business analytically and critically, 
with minds sufficiently nimble to run around and 
view things from all sides and every angle. 

If you are in the habit of taking a superficial 
view of your policies, your presentation of them 
will necessarily be commonplace. If, on the con- 
trary, you are accustomed to delving below the 
surface, examining the mechanism, and regard- 
ing them in comparison with, and relative to, 



106 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

other things, all manner of unusual aspects will 
develop. 

Let me give you one or two illustrations of 
what I mean : 

It would be extraordinary if, on the failure of 
an instalment purchaser to continue payments, 
the owner of the property should say: "That 
is all right! You continue to live in the house 
rent free for eight years and if you die in the 
meanwhile we will deed it, without cost, to your 
widow." The parallel is found in our extended 
insurance. 

A lawyer will be impressed by the peculiarity 
of our contract which binds the company to literal 
performance and permits the insured, practically 
without penalty, to break the principal agree- 
ment. And what is more, after his violation, 
gives him the privilege of resuming his original 
status under the contract without impairment of 
his rights and benefits. 

Suppose a responsible real estate firm to say: 
"Here is a lot which we will guarantee to pur- 
chase from you twenty years hence for $10,000, 
and in the event of your death in the meantime, 
we will convey it, without further cost, to your 
heirs — the sole consideration to be the payment 
by you of $420 a year." 

Do you not believe that many men would ac- 
cept the offer with a view to providing for their 
families or their later years? No doubt, and 
among the number would be not a few who 
would decline a proposition for a Twenty-year 
Endowment policy, although that would grant 
as much and more. 

I could continue indefinitely with such sugges- 
tions as these, but you should be able to think 
out many more for yourself, and had better do so. 
The Monthly Income Policy alone will afford you 
bases for a score of apt illustrations of the sort. 



TELLING TALK 107 

3 
PUT PURPOSE BEHIND TALK 

The chief weakness in our interviews is hap- 
hazard talk. We approach a stranger, about 
whom we know no more than his name, and so 
cannot, except by chance, say anything that will 
appeal to him personally. We open by saying 
that we have "a special proposition," or "the best 
policy on the market" to offer him. 

That doesn't mean anything. It doesn't ring 
true. It is buncombe. The result is that we get 
no further, except in cases of men who are already 
interested and in a receptive mood. In the 
numerous instances where no more than a live 
thought — an impressive idea — is necessary to 
awaken interest, we fail. 

This flabbiness of speech is due to mental indo- 
lence. Our minds do not become alert and ag- 
gressively active until a canvass is well developed, 
and an application appears to be in sight. Pre- 
vious to that stage we talk in generalities and 
beat about the bush with no particular object in 
view. 

Business talk, any talk, for that matter, — 
should always have a definite purpose. Every 
statement in a canvass should be consistent with 
an intelligent design. 

In the approach our object is to gain attention 
and create interest. We must prepare ourselves 
with apt, forceful openings. If possible, some 
knowledge of the prospect's affairs should enable 
us to give a specific personal application to our 
introductory statements. 

We shall go into this matter more extensively 
when we consider the Approach in detail. 

Having secured attention, our next purpose 
should be to find out whether we have a genuine 
prospect. When the opening has been unusually 
easy, it is safe to say that, in the majority of 



108 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

cases, you have a man who is ready .to be written 
if the right kind of proposition is presented, or 
one who has little use for time and is willing to 
join you in killing an hour or two. A great deal 
of our time is wasted on men who couldn't do 
business with us, no matter how much they might 
desire to do so. 

Having satisfied ourselves that we are, talking 
to a prospect, our effort should be directed to de- 
termining whether our proposition is attractive to 
him. Many a good case is lost through failure at 
this point. We are in contact with a man who 
actually wants insurance, but we suggest a policy 
that is not at all in line with his desire. He may 
not know just what he needs and, if he does, will, 
perhaps, not enlighten us. We continue to talk 
upon our first suggestion until he dismisses us 
with a declination. 

There is really no excuse for this kind of fail- 
ure. A few pointed questions will generally ex- 
tract from a prospect an expression of his require- 
ments. When presenting a proposition we should 
be able to tell in a few minutes whether we are 
exciting interest. If not, the sooner we take an- 
other tack the better. 

An agent occupied fifteen minutes in a fluent 
description of the Monthly Income Policy. When 
he paused for breath the supposed prospect said : 
"That is an admirable form of insurance for some 
men, but I would have no use for it. I was di- 
vorced recently and I have no children nor de- 
pendent relatives.'' It is needless to say that the 
agent had made no preparatory enquiry before 
entering upon this case. 

Years ago, when Senator first went 

East, I called upon him without any definite idea 
as to what I would propose. To my surprise, I 
got in on a business card. Mr. invited 



TELLING TALK 109 

me to be seated and prepared to listen to me with 
evident attention that excited my expectations. 

Of course, I knew him to be a millionaire with 
a large income from his mining properties. I took 
it for granted that straight life insurance was the 
only thing that would appeal to him. After talk- 
ing along that line for ten minutes I noticed that 
I was not making an impression. I stopped and 
said : "I am evidently not interesting you, Mr. 

." "I must confess that you are not," 

he replied. 

But I knew from the fact of his having ad- 
mitted me that he was open to an insurance 
proposition of some sort. I had been on the 
wrong track. I luffed and put about. 

"Mr. ," I said, "there are only two gen- 
eral purposes for which a man takes insurance — 
protection and investment. The chief appeal of 
investment is on the score of profit or safety. 
The former would be a secondary consideration 
with you, but you probably appreciate the pre- 
eminence of life insurance in the latter respect." 

In an instant I saw that I had hit the mark, and 
in less than half an hour I had his check for $7,300, 
the premium on $100,000 Fifteen-year Endowment. 

Let me give you a suggestion at this point. There 
are a number of men in every large city who enjoy 
incomes largely in excess of their needs — incomes 
derived from mines, oil wells, railroads, patents, 
and similar constantly producing properties. 
Such men are not looking for additional profits 
so much as for safety in the investment of their 
surplus money. They may be appealed to by 
Endowment insurance. 

In order to succeed our canvass must have a 
foundation consisting of certain conditions. Our 
talk should be directed to finding out if these con- 
ditions exist. Where any of them are absent our 
talk must be directed to creating them. 



110 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

These essential conditions are as follows : (1) 
The prospect must have a need which our propo- 
sition meets. (2) The prospect must realize that 
need and believe that our proposition will fill it. 
(3) The prospect must be satisfied that our propo- 
sition is superior to any other of the kind which 
has been or may be offered to him. (4) The pros- 
pect must be able to pay the cost and must be 
convinced that the benefit justifies him in do- 
ing so. 

These conditions are fundamentally necessary to 
success. We must test for them and adapt our talk 
and argument to them. If the prospect says that 
he has no need for insurance we must try to show 
him a need and to prove that our proposition will 
fully supply it. If he has doubts as to our company 
or our contract, our task is to set them at rest. If 
he questions the advisability of putting out the 
money, we must demonstrate the great gain to him- 
self and his beneficiary by the outlay. 

With these points disposed of, we are in a posi- 
tion to proceed to our closing effort intelligently in- 
stead of floundering about in the dark. We know 
the reasons and feelings that attract the prospect to 
our proposition or restrain him from accepting it. 
We know the motive upon which to work, and 
our talk will be direct and purposeful, instead of 
haphazard and rambling. 

4 
POINTED TALK IN THE APPROACH 

In the Approach nothing is of greater conse- 
quence than self-possession and the bearing that 
indicates a serious business man bent on a matter 
of importance. Your talk must be conistent with 
these conditions and emphasize the impression made 
by them. The combination of effects produced by 
your manner and speech during the first two or 
three minutes of contact with your prospect will 



TELLING TALK 111 

greatly influence, if they do not decide, his action 
on the question of hearing your proposition. 

The great majority of men are unreceptive to the 
ordinary suggestion of insurance. There is a close 
similarity in their attitude and in the replies which 
they make to the salesman's introduction. Almost 
invariably they are self-satisfied. They have all 
the life insurance they need. 

These are serious obstructions to the entering 
wedge, but since they are clearly defined and fre- 
quent in their occurrence, we should be prepared to 
remove them. 

The most effective preparation is based on previ- 
ously acquired information regarding the prospect. 
The mere statement that your proposition has been 
carefully formulated upon knowledge of a man's 
domestic or business affairs will often secure an in- 
terview. 

In the absence of such data, reliance must be 
placed on a stock of ready rejoinders to the stereo- 
type replies that are made to your opening. It is 
essential that you should not betray embarrassment 
or discomfiture. On the contrary, you should 
school yourself to look and act as if the discourag- 
ing response was exactly what you had expected. 
Then, if you can come back with something that 
will surprise your prospect, the situation will be 
to your advantage. 

In "The Psychology of a Sale" I have given two 
or 'three openings which have proved effective in 
warding off such hackneyed statements as "I am not 
interested," "I have all the insurance I need." A 
little thought should supply you with a number 
more. 

These gambits — to use a chess term — serve to 
start the game. They must be followed immediately 
with something which will entangle your prospect 
in the subject you have come to discuss with him. 



112 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

If you cannot introduce a direct appeal to personal 
interest at this point, it will generally be advisable 
to attack the complacency which is characteristic 
of most prospects. Make him dissatisfied — not 
with the policies which he carries, but with the 
extent of his protection. 

Let me give you a concrete illustration of my 
meaning. 

Your introduction has been met with the common 
reply : "I have all the life insurance I need." 

You treat it as if it was precisely what you had 
been looking for and go on to say: "May I ask 
how much you carry, Mr. Blank?" 

"I have ten thousand dollars." 

"Ten thousand dollars !" you repeat with surprise 
in your tone, but not enough to appear exaggerated, 
or to cause offence. "Ten thousand dollars repre- 
sents no more than five hundred dollars a year or 
about forty dollars a month. But, perhaps, it 
may not be good for that much. Your beneficiary 
may dip into the principal, or even lose it." Pause 
a moment here to allow the dissatisfaction to be- 
gin working. Then make an effort to arouse 
curiosity by continuing with, "Some day, Mr. 
Blank, you may see the advisability of insuring 
your insurance." 

"What do you mean by that?" he will ask. 

"I shall be glad to explain to you. There is a 
simple method of 'making assurance doubly sure' 
which is being adopted quite generally by business 
men now-a-days. It is well worth your while learn- 
ing about it because at some future time you will 
probably be inclined to increase your protection." 

You then proceed to remind him that death al- 
ways involves more or less expense and sometimes 
is the culmination of a protracted illness. His ten 
thousand dollar policy will serve to meet the im- 
mediate calls upon the beneficiary for cash and will 
supply her with means to discharge such temporary 



TELLING TALK 113 

liabilities as the expense of educating her children, 
etc. But absolute and permanent provision for 
the family can only be secured through a Monthly 
Income Policy. 

Now, let us review this approach and see what 
you have effected. In the first place, you dodged 
your prospect's "put off" without losing ground, 
and by your enquiry as to his insurance induced him 
to take the first step in a discussion of the subject. 
Then you started the process of creating dissatis- 
faction and at the same time aroused curiosity. On 
his invitation to explain you did not go right to the 
point. You used a long, thin entering wedge in the 
form of a little more preliminary talk. In this, you 
mentioned the possibility of his increasing his insur- 
ance "at some future time." You wisely deferred 
any suggestion of his doing so now, until after 
the creation of desire. Paving the way for desire, 
you went on to show the limited protection af- 
forded by his ten thousand dollar policy. Then, 
with his mind prepared for the favorable recep- 
tion of your proposition, you made a forceful 
showing of the safety, permanency and adequacy 
of the provision secured by a Monthly Income 
Policy. 

This analytical survey is worth while because the 
effect of your talk and your effort must depend 
largely upon a definite idea as to what you are about. 
It will be of little avail to prepare yourself with 
counter speeches and "come backs" unless you 
have a well-conceived purpose in what you say. 

5 
TALK DERIVES FORCE FROM FEELING 

We have passed the Approach and the opening of 
the Interview. We will now assume that your pros- 
pect is passively prepared to hear your proposition. 
You have aroused a certain amount of interest, but 
probably it is too weak to live unless it receives im- 



114 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

mediate stimulation. Many canvasses fail at this 
early stage. The agent has made a strong mental 
effort in the Approach with a view to securing an 
Interview. Having succeeded in that object, he re- 
laxes and quickly loses what ground he has gained. 
He and his prospect revert to the position they oc- 
cupied at the beginning of the Approach, one trying 
to break the contact and the other hopelessly en- 
deavoring to maintain it. 

At the outset of the Interview proper, you must 
be alive to the immediate necessity of sustaining and 
increasing the interest which has brought you into 
touch with your man. To this end you should be 
prepared with a few well-calculated remarks. The 
preliminaries may be likened to the approach of two 
catch-as-catch-can wrestlers. They are designed to 
give you a hold on your man's mind and to bring 
about a mutual mental grapple. 

The presentation of your proposition cannot be 
made too simply. It is a mistake to explain a 
policy in all its details. In covering so much 
ground you cannot fail to raise unnecessary argu- 
ment and objection. Very often the sale is made 
on one point — the nature of the protection, the 
total disability feature, the endowment settle- 
ment, or some other striking benefit. This is the 
actuating Motive and, if you have no clue to it 
at the start, your talk should be directed toward 
its discovery. 

Clarity is even more important than brevity in 
your statement. Choose your words carefully 
with the purpose of conveying a clear idea of your 
proposition, and be sure that your prospect un- 
derstands you as you proceed step by step in your 
presentation. A thorough conception of your 
offer on the part of the prospect is essential to a 
sale. 

In order to make your presentation simple and 



TELLING TALK 115 

understandable it is advisable to practice statements 
of the principal points of your canvasses, and es- 
pecially various ways of stating technicalities in 
every-day language. The most effective way of 
doing this is by employing phrases common to your 
prospect's business, and drawing illustrations from 
the same source. The terms in which a man habitu- 
ally speaks and thinks are naturally those that will 
appeal to him most clearly and forcibly. 

Make your prospect feel that you have an in- 
terest in him and his welfare. Too many agents 
give the impression that their canvass is a cut-and- 
dried recital which they apply to all cases alike, and 
that their chief thought and concern is for them- 
selves and their prospective profit in the matter. 
Cut out the "I" and emphasize the "you" in your 
talk and thought. If you do so, your manner will 
reinforce your words and carry the conviction to 
your man that you are sincerely striving to pro- 
mote his interests. 

This attitude on your part will justify you in 
talking freely and frankly and his belief in your 
sincerity will induce the prospect to accept in good 
part any tactful and pertinent statements that you 
may make. 

Don't be afraid to put teeth into your talk. 
Bear in mind throughout a canvass that you are a 
business man, discussing with another a matter of 
the utmost importance to him. The occasion and 
the conditions justify plain and forceful expression. 
Your prospect will respect outspoken candor, 
whereas, restraint for fear of hurting his feelings 
is apt to arouse his contempt. I suspect that the 
timidity of agents on this score is due, in the main, 
to defective mental attitude. Their business does 
not occupy a sufficiently high plane in their minds. 
They have a sneaking consciousness that the com- 
mission is the chief, if not the sole consideration 
with them. They do not occupy common ground 



116 PRACTICAL POINTERS 

with the prospect because they fail to get on his 
side of the fence and look at the proposition from 
his point of view. They do not excite his imagi- 
nation in the right direction because, instead of 
his widow, they are thinking of the application ; in 
place of his children, their minds are centered on 
his check. 

Your mental attitude will determine the effect of 
your talk. It is not what you say, but what you 
feel that influences the result. Indeed, without 
change of words you may use the same expres- 
sion and produce opposite effects. 

Telling talk depends more upon the condition 
of mind than upon the composition of the words. 



Life Insurance 
Salesmanship Aids 

Two Books by an Expert 



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New Edition 

TWO large editions of this work having been 
exhausted, the author has revised the book, 
making it more forceful in many respects. 

The work comprises Practical Lessons in Life 
Insurance Salesmanship as evolved from the 
practice of Forbes Lindsay, a Life Insurance 
Manager. Ten Chapters covering the whole range 
of fitness producing Efficiency. 

PRICE, Leather Bound . . $1.00 
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF 
A SALE 

by the Same Author 

TREATS of the mental process involved in 
a sale, handled in a practical manner with 
a strict avoidance of fanciful theory. 

PRICE, Leather Bound . . $1.00 
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